Life On The Other Side: Brown
by Kate-Emma
Summary: Complete - Part 3 of 6 – Back for revenge, Craig Bolt returns for his wife. Who will die in the crossfire? And who will go missing – much to the horror of one of the team…
1. Brown

Life On The Other Side: Brown

CID takes up a campaign to bring down local brothel-king Craig Bolt on rumours of supporting the trade of underage prostitutes. What they uncover is more than they imagined…

In Part 3: Brown, following up rumours about Hayleigh Spark, Millie faces a few things she didn't want to face. Meanwhile Bolt pops back up on the radar, but when he can't get back at his 'wife', he picks on someone else instead… 

Rated T   
PC Millie Brown/DS Max Carter/OC – DC Hayleigh Spark   
Crime

**Disclaimer:** I don't own 'The Bill'

_Chapter One;  
_Brown

She turned right when she reached Canley High Street, avoiding the busy walkways and instead cutting across the park and back towards Sun Hill. As she was stopped at a set of traffic lights she knelt over, catching her breath and placing her hands on her hips, waiting for the crossing to turn green. After about a minute the cars roaring through the intersection ceased and the pedestrian crossing lit up. She walked across the intersection, but as soon as she reached the other side she began to run again.

She enjoyed running. She always had. It had been what she'd been good at during her school years and she'd originally taken it up as a way to think and have some time alone rather than for the merits of exercising. When you were 13 and had the figure of a rake staying healthy wasn't the big issue – it was boys.

Not that a lot changed in 14 years. Even now her issue was boys, but this time for a very different reason.

Her issue was the Roxon and Bolt family. They'd all had their names changed and were now living under the alias of Rawlinson. Samuel had become Joseph, Eleanor was Sarah, Andrea was Isabelle and David became Paul. But despite the name changes, the new house and the assurance by Witness Protection that they'd be fine, their same problems remained.

So Millie had spent the day with the family, being watched over by a DS who spent the entire day seated in a corner talking to PC Beth Green about the likelihood of the policeman Samuel now feared finding out who they were. Witness Protection's big boss assured them their identities would only be revealed to those who already knew them and the two or three trusted individuals from WP who were in charge of liaising with them and keeping their identities alive in the world.

Sam was still hesitant about talking any more about the bent cop he was certain Natovnia had in his pocket, but could reveal he'd heard in his travels about where they may be able to find Bolt. It was news Max had suddenly become very interested in and, leaving a bemused Beth behind in mid-conversation (or what Millie jealously termed mid-flirt), he joined them on the couch. Samuel had his legs pulled up to his chest as he sat in the armchair and Millie was so busy watching his body language she didn't even note Max had joined her until his presence on the couch made her shift a little to her left towards him. She straightened herself quickly, glancing at him for a second as he frowned towards Sam, then smiled back at the boy. "So where were you when you heard his name?"

"Lygon St. On the other side of Linbroke." Linbroke was the borough neighbouring Canley, on the northwest side. "It was from a guy in a pub."

Max nodded. "What did he say exactly?"

"Something about a new guy named Chris Bolt trying to break into the local dealer scene. I've heard uncle Craig use the name Chris before, used it once on the phone when I was 7. That was back in Manchester of course."

Millie smiled. "That's great. When was this?"

Sam checked his watch. "It was about the 8th, the Tuesday." 6 days ago. "I should've mentioned it earlier, I'm sorry.

Max looked about ready to jump in with an angry agree, but Millie spoke over him. "It's okay Sam, you were unsure of our motives, we understand."

After that Max had taken his leave, wandering into the kitchen with the phone pressed to his ear, and Millie had left Sam with Witness Protection who were discussing Eleanor's new schooling arrangements. She couldn't go back to her old university classes and plans were being put in place so she could study distance education under her new name. Being a first year helped, but she was still going to be a few months behind. Like everything else so far, she was taking it in her stride, but Millie sensed it wouldn't be long before the cracks began to appear.

Max had been leaning against the kitchen bench, frowning at the roof as he talked, a phone habit Millie had always found quietly endearing. He glanced at her as she walked in and motioned to the kettle, but he shook his head, stepping aside to let Millie access to the kitchen drawers. She listened to his conversation as the kettle boiled. "… no, run a check through Kingmarsh… I know there's probably a thousand Chris Bolts in London but I'm not asking you to check London Stevie, I just need Linbroke covered… yes, all new occupants too… then get Kezia to help you… yes, you too." He snapped the phone shut and shoved it in his pocket. "I have to go run a check for Bolt before Stevie finds some new elaborate means for killing me, but stay here with the family and find out any more you can about Craig, Chris or whatever the hell Bolt is calling himself now. I'll need you in tomorrow f…" Millie made to respond but he stopped and held up a finger. "I know it's your day off PC Brown but DC Spark is still not up for a full day yet, so come in about 10, I'll see you then." Stalking off, Millie just scowled at his back.

He was right though; Hayleigh wasn't up to a full day. It had been three days since the raid on Holman's club and since then things had gone from bad to worse, especially for the team's newest addition. On the Saturday night, walking from the station back to the police accommodation only down the road, she'd been pushed and kicked to the kerb by unseen men. Then, on the Sunday night whilst drinking with Stevie and Kezia at the pub, a woman in the female bathrooms had punched her in the stomach. She'd been able to identify the woman, but she hadn't been found yet, but the two men from Saturday night had still got away. Hayleigh had assured them it was coincidences, but Stuart wasn't so certain and wanted the DC out of the line of fire, not that the woman would have any of it. Hayleigh was still working but, having been confined to the station, was almost useless when it came to following up on leads. Add to that 'Andrea' hadn't been recognized, Natovnia was still free, and Lewis Dunn had been admitted to hospital for alcohol poisoning and wasn't due for release until Thursday, it had all added up to a horrid weekend.

Which was why Millie was now running to work, trying to exercise the trouble out of her head.

As she spotted the station at the end of the street she sighed.

Here we go again…


	2. Ainsley Arms

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything… except your soul! Hee hee.

Chapter Two;  
Ainsley Arms

"Alright ladies, update for the DCI in about forty seconds, so fill me in." Stuart sauntered into the room and dumped a handful of folders on his desk. No one had seen him since Saturday night, having been rostered off for Sunday and Monday.

"Where did you spend your days off then?" Stevie asked with a grin.

"Sunny Acapulco," Stuart teased. Stevie raised an eyebrow. "If Acapulco is somewhere near my sister's place in backwater Birmingham." He took a seat at his desk and rolled his hand. "Come on then, updates."

"I got to meet the lovely people of St. Hugh's… twice." Hayleigh frowned up from her desk where she sat, one wrist bandaged, flicking through a file.

"Yes, I heard, how are you?"

"Seriously wanting to hurt whichever prick organized the attacks, and after Sunday night I can be pretty certain who that is." She pulled from the file a piece of paper and handed it over to Stuart. It was her statement about Sunday night's attack in the pub bathrooms. "Don't recall her exact words, but they were something like 'he says he'll get you for years of lies'. You can have two guesses to who she's talking about, but you won't need the second one."

"Our elusive friend Mr. Bolt." Stuart put down the statement and glanced at the others, smiling briefly at Millie as she entered the office, looking a little puffed, and took a seat. She was back out of uniform and sporting jeans and a new black suit jacket over a tan-coloured blouse. "How are the Bolts settling in?"

Millie glanced up to speak but Max spoke up over her. "Samuel said he heard Bolt's alias 'Chris' mentioned at the Ainsley Arms on the Kingmarsh patch." Millie dropped her eyes back to her files as Stuart turned his attention on Max and Stevie who was seated nearby.

"Well, I spoke to Kingmarsh and they said they've been keeping watch on the Ainsley. Drug dealers' paradise." Stevie added, joining in and dropping a one-page summary of Kingmarsh's investigations onto Stuart's desk. "So it doesn't surprise me at all that Craig could be found around there, scurrying back to his natural habitat."

"What are the locals like?"

"Racist, sexist and xenophobic drunks and druggies who all survive on welfare or crime."

Hayleigh raised her eyebrows. "Craig's finally amongst equals then?"

"Did Kingmarsh get a chance to speak to any of the locals, identify Bolt?"

Stevie shook her head. "No one talks over there. Getting any names is like extracting blood from a stone. Naturally they don't have any CCTV either, but we did get something." Stevie smiled at Millie who wasn't watching. "Well, PC Brown got something anyway."

Millie glanced up and Stevie nodded for her to speak. She started tentatively. "Uh, it was Eleanor, talking about how she managed to get her hands on her uncle's drugs. Apparently he mentioned in passing someone named Bryce or Brian, she wasn't sure."

"Thankfully PC Brown is naturally inquisitive." Stevie smiled before holding up a photo. "Bryce Goodwin. 23-years-old, works behind the bar at the Ainsley." She passed over the photo along with a wrap sheet. "Minor offences as a teen, but put away in juvenile for a year when he was 16 for stealing a car. Guess where?"

"Manchester." Stuart read off the wrap sheet. "Any real connections to Bolt?"

"Weak. He went to the same school in Manchester as Samuel and Eleanor, but they don't remember him." Millie spoke up. "He's a bit older than them so it's no wonder really. I know I was a bit scared of the older kids in school, let alone what it would be like if your uncle was the town's least favourite brothel owner."

"Okay, so how exactly can we tie them together any more than a passing name, a shared home town and a new friendship called the Ainsley?" Stuart asked. Stevie shook her head. Millie hung hers. "Ok, circumstantial. So I say we give your new friends at Kingmarsh a call and get them to find some excuse to bring Goodwin in, don't you?" Stevie nodded and grabbed her phone, wandering away from the group. "Oh, and where's Will?"

"Forgot to mention Dunn. He checked himself out of hospital after PCs Gayle and Taylor checked him in on Friday. Evaded uniform, headed home, drank himself stupid and was found by PC Taylor on Sunday morning in a severe case of alcohol poisoning. They had to pump his stomach, liver damage they're saying." Hayleigh filled Stuart in. "Some idiots just never learn."

"So Will is…"

"At St. Hugh's making sure our only witness to Natovnia's break for the high hills doesn't bugger off and drink himself retarded again."

"Wait, he went home?"

Hayleigh laughed. "Yeah, back to the home of the creepiest landlord this side of London. Broke in through the back window, crawled into an empty house and passed out from scotch-related stupidity on his old living room floor where PC Taylor found him a day later."

"What an idiot…" Stuart started, only to be cut off when Sgt. Smith burst into the room. "Where's the fire Smithy?"

"On the Maycroft actually. I tried calling up here but it seems none of you turn phones off silent. Fire broke out in a flat on the Maycroft little over an hour ago." They gave him a blank look. "It's the home of Nikolai Brecht's brother, the one currently living at her Majesty's pleasure."

"Nice. Okay, Max, Millie and Stevie, join uniform down there."

Hayleigh frowned. "Oh come on, let me out of here." She motioned back at Stevie who was still on the phone. "She's busy anyway, so come on."

Her voice was getting far too close to child-like whining and Stuart gave in. "Fine, but only because you're staying with the Firies to write up their report on the cause. If I find out you went even a few millimetres away from the chief, I will put you on desk duties until Craig Bolt walks in here begging to be gaoled."

Hayleigh held up a notepad and pen. "Report detail, you got it boss." She gave a stiff salute with her bandaged hand then followed Smithy, Millie and Max from the office just as DCI Meadows walked in and glanced around at the silent room, empty save for Stevie in the corner chatting away animatedly, phone pressed to her left ear.

Stuart just smiled. "You missed the party guv, but it's okay, I'll give you a wrap up." They walked into the nearby briefing room leaving Stevie alone in the empty room.


	3. Hayleigh

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the characters, the estate or the fire. Mmmm, fire… yes, just releasing the inner arsonist a little bit…

_  
Chapter Three;  
_Hayleigh

"Woah, thar she blows." Roger stepped back instinctively as the windows of the flat exploded out from the pressure of the heat inside. The firefighters below ducked and covered their heads as the glass rained down on them in a snowflake-like shower. The mid-June sky glowed a strange orange under the weight of the smoke and the ten o'clock sunshine, but Roger turned his attention away from it as the two cars turned up in front of him, one holding Sgt. Smith and PC Brown, the other holding Max and Hayleigh. Max didn't look happy when Hayleigh emerged from the dark blue CID car holding a can of soft drink. She ignored his cold looks and joined uniform on the kerb.

"How's it going Rodge?" She held the can out to him but he refused it.

"The place just went off like Dante's Peak. On the plus side, now that's passed the Firies can get in there and put it out." Nate said, doing a running commentary on a fact they all knew anyway. They ignored it.

"Started door-knocking yet, see if anyone knows what happened?" Smithy asked, frowning as the fire as it lapped the windowsill, threatening its escape. Being that Brecht's apartment seemed to stand alone from the others, there was little chance of the other homes on the Maycroft being threatened, but they had evacuated the two neighbouring blocks (both large homes called The Esquire and The Barron – far too regal names for an area like the Maycroft) and now about thirty people stood in the square.

Roger motioned to them. "We spoke to a few of the residents. They said they heard something this morning, but knowing the estate it could've been harmless, so they passed it off as another bunch of kids stealing something or a domestic."

"Anyone see anything though?" Roger shook his head. "Okay, it'll be a while before the place is free for us so Roger, Nate, head over to the other side of the estate, near the park, see if anyone saw anybody loitering strangely nearby." They nodded and left, Max going with them muttering something about knowing someone over there. Smithy then turned to the women. "PC Brown, DC Spark, there's two blocks of flats behind these two," he motioned to the empty flats in front of him. "Door-knock back there and see if anyone has a decent view of the Brecht house. I have no doubt this has something to do with Nikolai so see if anyone knows or has heard of him." They nodded and started off as well, DC Spark finishing her drink and chucking it into a bin nearby with a lazy toss. It rolled around the rim before eventually falling in.

"Hey, didn't get to say this morning, nice outfit change." Hayleigh grinned, motioning to the jacket and blouse. "You look very CID-ish."

Millie smiled. "DI Manson told me yesterday that I might be with you lot for a while, especially after the breakthrough with the Bolts, so I better get comfortable. Plus, with summer setting in, any excuse to get out of that uniform is a major bonus."

"Ah yes, I remember the uniform. Itched at the back, too tight at the front, and hot everywhere in between – except in winter of course, then you just damn well freeze to death." She motioned skyward. "Nicer weather here though. This time in Manchester we still wouldn't be seeing any sun yet. It would be cloud, rain, cloud, rain and more rain."

"You've clearly already forgotten the mid-January rain storms. No snow, no sun, just rain, rain and more rain." Millie grinned, copying Hayleigh's last statement purposely.

"Yeah, selective memory and all that." Hayleigh tapped her head. "Helps you forget things like how yo…" She stopped as the air around them suddenly became peppered with gunfire and both dropped to the ground, Millie grabbing her radio and calling for urgent assistance at the back of Lloyd House. As a siren was heard in the distance the firing stopped and Hayleigh looked up slowly. "What the hell?" She glanced down at the pain in her leg to find she'd been hit in the calf. Swearing softly, she grabbed the injury just as the others turned up. Max, Nate and Roger rushed toward them. Roger and Nate helped Hayleigh up as Max went to Millie who was just sitting up slowly and brushing herself off.

"You alright?" He frowned and offered her a hand. She took it and he easily pulled her to her feet. It was then that she noticed Hayleigh. She left Max and went to her, watching Hayleigh assess her own injuries and Nate call an ambulance.

The DC just shrugged off her pain. "Flesh wound, I've seen worse." She gave a grin as Roger shook his head.

Millie looked at him. "Who was that?" She crouched down next to Hayleigh as the DC remained glaring at her leg as if believing she could frighten it into healing itself.

"Probably some of Bolt's cronies," Max responded. "I don't know how they knew we were here, but I wouldn't put anything past Bolt." He crossed his arms and frowned at the blocks, trying to figure out where the firing had come from, but it was silent now and the perpetrators were gone.

Nate returned. "Ambulance will be here in a second."

Hayleigh growled. "I'm fine, I don't need an ambulance. Give us a hand." Roger ignored her hand and she turned to Millie. "C'mon Mills, don't leave me here looking like an idiot."

Millie smiled. "You can stay there until we prove otherwise." She stood up and followed Max back to the car. "If you're right and it is Bolt, how'd he know we were here?"

Max shrugged. "I'm not sure. Whatever the case, this is the third attack on her in as many days." He nodded back at Hayleigh. "He's clearly trying to get to her." Millie frowned as Max looked back at her. "I won't be able to convince her to keep her head down, she's made a point of not listening to me, but maybe you can."

Millie shrugged. "I can try."

"Thank you." With a tap on her arm, Max walked away. Millie glanced back at Hayleigh just as the ambulance turned up. Then, with another glance back at Max, she went to join Hayleigh for her trip to the hospital.


	4. Nicholas

**Disclaimer: **I don't own The Bill.

Chapter Four;  
Nicholas

Stuart and Max joined the women at the hospital one hour later, leaving Roger and Nate to go looking for the women's attackers. They found Millie seated in the squishy armchair beside Hayleigh's bed, the DC scowling at her leg as Millie sat enthralled by something she was watching on a small hand-held DVD player. The thing wasn't loud but drew Max's attention and when he glanced over it to find Millie watching some kind of musical, he frowned. "I didn't know you liked musicals."

"Love them." Millie muttered simply, turning it to show him. "_Jesus Christ Superstar_."

Max gave a small chin-raised nod, failing to hide his disinterest, then turned back to Hayleigh who was now receiving twenty questions from Stuart about what the doctor had said about her bullet wound. "Want to keep me here 'til the painkillers wear off. I told them I'm fine to go but they said if I died on the way out of the hospital it would be their guts for garter." She grinned. "'Parrently your lot are pretty hard on them when something happens."

"Blame the Super." Stuart nodded to the DVD player. "And that was?"

"Because I was whinging 'bout being bored. Seems, however, this hospital hasn't yet discovered adult movies. It was musicals or BBC period romances from the Grandma collection or kids movies from the Childrens collection." Millie gave a half-hearted scowl at being referred to as a grandma. "So, anyone catch the jerks that did this?"

Stuart shook his head. "Nothing yet, but PCs Roberts and Valentine are giving the Maycroft the once-over. If it makes you feel any better we're off to scrounge through Brecht's belongings." Hayleigh scowled. "Thought you'd like that." He nodded to Max then smiled at Hayleigh. "Okay, give us a call when you get out of here and we'll send someone around to pick you up. You can return to desk duties, I know how much you love them."

"You put me back on desk duties sarge and you better start deadlocking your windows at night."

Stuart just chuckled. "Get better soon." He glanced at Millie. "Come on then Mary Magdalene, back to work."

Millie stood and put the DVD player down on Hayleigh's bedside table. "Have fun." With a cheeky smile she followed the sergeants from the hospital.

*

The door knocking proved fruitless. Anyone that did seem to know something was staying quiet and the rest were pretending they'd heard nothing; I was in the shower, the radio's very loud, I'm partly deaf in one ear being used as the best of the excuses. After a little over an hour of knocking Nate and Roger proceeded to give up, heading back towards the IRV. When they got there they found a small boy standing in front of it, looking at it with a look of sheer awe flashing across his face.

"Hey mate," Roger called, expecting the child to run off like all the estate kids did, but instead he just grinned at them. He was clutching a rather grubby blue toy that, as they got closer, was revealed to be a teddy bear. He wouldn't be older than five, maximum. "Like it?" The child tipped his head at the question. "The car?" He nodded, suddenly shy. Roger crouched down to his height, his knees aching as he did. Damn he was too old for this. "What's your name? My name is Roger."

"Nicky." He clutched the bear. "And this is Ted."

Roger smiled. "Well, it's nice to meet you Nicky, and you too Ted." He nodded to the bear. "Now," he pushed himself back to full height. "You shouldn't be out here by yourself, we've had a bit of trouble." The boy shrugged. "Where do you live? We can drop you home."

"Can you turn on the flashies and the 'woo woo'?"

Roger chuckled. "The Blues and Twos? Only for emergencies. But if you want you can sit in the front with me and my friend here," he thumbed back to Nate who suddenly frowned at the attention, "can sit in the back."

Nicky smiled and nodded, following Roger to the car as he carefully repeated his address. Slumped in the backseat like a naughty child, Nate checked the details on his radio and found the child's mother was a Valerie Delaney and the child they had now was Nicholas. Apparently they were already on Social Services' radar. When they reached the Delaney residence they knocked a few times before peering through the glass of the front window. The back door was wide open but the place didn't seem to be a mess. Roger glanced at Nicholas. "Nicky, were you here alone this morning?"

Nicholas nodded slowly. "I got bored so I went for a walk."

Nate shook is head, silently judging the mother, then called the station and asked if any of them could call Social Services in regards to the Delaney family. Meanwhile Roger and young Nicholas walked around to the back door and let themselves in, Roger first checking no one else was inside before letting the child back in. As he re-entered the living room, Nicholas said something that caught Roger's attention. Something about playing with toy guns. Roger frowned and glanced back at the child. "Toy guns Nicky?"

"Mummy says I can't have one, but they look so cool."

"Nicholas, did you see something happen down at the Maycroft?" Roger took a stab in the dark that seemed to pay off when Nicholas nodded. "Was it the fire?" Nicholas shook his head then started talking about wanting to be a fireman but Roger cut him off. "Did you see anyone with a gun?" The silence from the child was enough to warrant further investigation. Grabbing his radio Roger cancelled the call for Social Services to drop by – the PCs and Nicholas were headed back to the station, they could meet them there.


	5. Delaney

**Disclaimer: **I don't own The Bill. All characters that are non-canon inhabit a world which is not mine; therefore I relinquish my ownership of them. Oooh, how formal sounding! ;)

**A/N: **Enjoy some Max and child time. I blame the new Bill episodes for it. It's like the perfect pair – a four-year-old plus a man with temper tantrums he stole from a four-year-old!

_Chapter Five;  
_Delaney

The Social Services girl took Nicholas from Roger and Nate at the front desk, shaking her head to herself as Nate led her back inside. Apparently she'd had dealings with the Delaneys before herself and Valerie had promised to change. It appeared now to be an empty promise. Roger, meanwhile, headed upstairs to tell CID about the boy.

"His name is Nicholas Delaney, he's four-years-old." Stuart nodded, listening carefully as Roger filled him in. Across the other side of the room Stevie and Millie were in conversation as they read through a list of names on a computer. "Nate and I found him this morning during door knocking. He mentioned seeing something happen on the Maycroft and guns. I can't be certain sarge but I think he saw the shooting."

Stuart frowned. "I don't know how accurate the testimony of a four-year-old would be."

"I know, but I just thought you may get a few pieces of information out of him, just in case."

"You reckon he could do an ID parade?" Stevie asked. Stuart and Roger looked up, unaware she'd been listening in. "Just that we've got ourselves a list of Maycroft locals here, all of which could have been involved, and any chance to narrow this list would be fantastic." Stuart nodded slowly as Stevie said one last thing. "48 names."

Roger just shrugged at the question. "He might."

"Okay, thanks Roger." Roger left and Stuart glanced back at the women. "So who've we got then?"

"Alphabetically you can go from Aaron O'Rourke – charged in 2006 for handling a stolen weapon, never served time, right down to Zander Kane – charged in 2002 for armed robbery, released two months ago."

"Millie, work the PNC on all of these names, see if we can rule any out. Look for any connections to Bolt or Manchester or even Natovnia. I don't think he's quite off the radar yet, especially not in this." Millie nodded and returned to her desk with the list of names in hand. "Stevie, if Bolt organised this, which I think we can safely suspect he did, he might have met these people in Linbroke. Get on to Kingmarsh and see if they know any names."

"Well, we're really abusing my Kingmarsh contact today aren't we?" But Stevie said it with a smile before grabbing her phone and taking a seat in front of the names. As Stuart returned to his desk CID were joined by the frowning figure of the young, blonde Social Services girl.

"Hey, DS Turner, I hate to be a pain, but I'll need to pop out for a short time." Stuart frowned. "Just half an hour, max. It's just Nicholas' mother won't be here for an hour at least so I'll need someone to watch him just for a short time."

Stuart shook his head. "Can't, sorry Sara."

The Social Services worker frowned. "I have another appointment. I'm sorry but I will have to leave Nicholas here with you. There must be someone who can watch him?"

"The only person free is DS Carter who's currently on a lunch break."

"And DS Carter isn't the kind of person you leave a kid with. Not unless you really, really don't like 'em." Stevie grinned, walking past with her phone still pressed to her ear.

The girl growled. "Fine, you have half an hour."

"Thanks Sara," Stuart called after her as she walked out of the room. "Okay, no one will be free in half an hour either."

Stevie looked up from the fax machine, phone gone. "I'll go seconder a uniform."

"Get Roger," Millie suggested, looking up from her computer. "He's good with kids."

"Because he looks like someone's friendly grandfather?" Stevie raised her eyebrow with a mocking smile as she left.

*

Roger had been watching the child for an hour when the door to the soft interview room opened and Max appeared, nodding to Roger. The PC came to the younger DS' side. "I heard he saw the shooting."

Roger frowned. "We suspected and he mentioned seeing DC Spark and PC Brown, but he's closed up, won't talk about anything until his mother gets here."

"His incompetent mother who left him home alone?" Max judged. "I don't think she'd be helpful. Give me a few minutes with him." Roger looked he was about to say something negative but quickly nodded and left the room.

Max turned his attention to the child seated on the floor in the centre of the room. "It's Nicholas right?" The boy smiled shyly as Max took a seat. "My name is Max. What's your friend's name?" He motioned to the boy's stuffed bear.

"Ted." Nicholas hugged it. "He can be your friend too if you'd like."

Max nodded. "I would like that." Nicholas smiled and turned his attention back to the toys before him. "Now, Nicholas, Roger thinks that you saw two of my friends this afternoon, two women?" Nicholas nodded. "Did you see what happened to them?"

"Someone went 'bang bang' and they got scared." He didn't look up from his toys.

"That's right. Now, I think you saw the people who did it." Nicholas shook his head. "Are you sure? Because if you're scared to tell me it's okay because we'll keep you and Ted safe." Max inched forward in the leather armchair trying to sound as comforting as possible. Nicholas didn't respond. "I'll try it again okay? Did you see the people that fired on the two women?" Nicholas shook his head. Max sighed. "Okay, well th…" He only just noticed the bear nodding as he got up to leave. He sat back down again, intrigued. "It's Ted right?" The bear nodded again. "Ted," he felt stupid talking to a stuffed animal, but if it got a result as to who tried to shoot Millie and Hayleigh it was worth it. "Did you see what happened?" Ted nodded. "Did you see who did it?" Again the bear nodded. "And how many?"

Nicholas held the bear to his ear then whispered "three".

"Three?" Max noted it down on his notepad. "Thanks Ted." He glanced at Nicholas who averted his eyes to the ground and then to Ted. "Could you identify them Ted, if we showed you some pictures?" Ted nodded again. "Thank you." Nicholas, with the hand not being used to control Ted, started to build a small tower out of blocks. Max smiled at the child. "Okay, so after the men went 'bang bang' at the women, what happened?" The bear shrugged. "Come on Ted, you can tell me right, we're friends." Nicholas was silent, just staring at the floor. "Nicky?" Then the twitching started, starting at his hands until he fell. Max caught the boy before he hit the ground and lay him down, dashing to the door and tugging it open to find Roger waiting for him. "Roger, get an ambulance. Now!"

The _Life On The Other Side _series returns in 2010


	6. St Hugh's

**Disclaimer: **I didn't get what I really wanted for Christmas – ownership of The Bill – therefore nothing here is mine. Wah.

**A/N: **Happy New Year! New year, same story line. Enjoy…

Chapter Six;  
St. Hugh's

Nicholas Delaney was fine. It was news that had hit Max's ears five minutes after he walked into St Hugh's after the child. He was an epileptic, a disease that caused him to suffer small seizures under moments of heightened stress, and something Max should have been aware of. He did wear a small silver necklace to warn people of it. But Max covered his ignorance of the condition with a shrug and the words 'it wasn't that stressful', an excuse that had left the duty nurse frowning before allowing him to see the boy. He wasn't alone, the blonde Social Services girl Sara at his side. She frowned softly at Max as he stepped around the curtain, glancing at Roger who had accompanied the boy to the hospital.

When Max had called for an ambulance Roger had walked in and immediately put the boy into the recovery position, himself aware of young Nicholas' condition. Of course this was because Roger had done the one thing Max hadn't – paid the boy, and not just his information, some heed.

As Roger confirmed the boy would be fine and that Max really should finish that report on what had happened, Max decided to take his leave, deeming Sara's dirty look reason enough. If looks could kill…

Passing through the ward he stopped as he heard a familiar voice arguing with a nurse.

"No, get off me, I'm fine," Max raised a solitary eyebrow, pausing just outside the curtain. He heard the nurse groan. "Just get out of here. Bloody incompetent NHS staff."

With a pout etched to her lips an older brunette woman pushed back the curtains and stormed out. Max sneaked a glance through the curtains and noted the man. Just who he thought he was. He followed the nurse. "Nurse, about your patient in Bed 14?"

"Mr. Lloyd is clearly a man of the private health system, at which point he should return to it." She vented, not hiding her anger at the insufferable creature she'd just dealt with. Max felt her pain.

"Yeah, uh, DS Carter, Sun Hill," he flashed the badge but she paid it no mind. "Look, what's he in for?"

"Concussion, broken leg, fractured wrist. Why? Is this a criminal investigation now? He told me he'd just fallen down some stairs."

Max shook his head. "Not yet. Thank you." Heading out to the front waiting room he withdrew his phone and called Stuart. Stuart picked up with a 'what do you want Max?', but the tone was jocular. "I have a friend of ours here you might want to talk to."

"Who?"

"You'll see, let's just say his attack is probably related and definitely not before his time."

Stuart paused then Max could hear him frown. "Hold up, you're handing the investigation over to me for once? Really, for a while there I thought you were taking the newspaper report seriously and had actually appointed yourself SIO."

"Funny," Max replied, completely deadpan. "I have paperwork to finish on the boy. I think we can kiss out ID parade goodbye."

"If I didn't know any better Max I'd say the incident with young Mr. Delaney actually hurt." Max said nothing so Stuart jumped to a conclusion. "Oh ho, I'm right, it did! Call the BBC – Max Carter is going soft in his old ag…" Max shut out the tone by snapping his phone closed.

*

The curtains around the bed were drawn back with a flourish and the occupant looked up with wide eyes at the duo looking down at him. "Mr. Holman." Stuart smiled. "Or is it Mr. Lloyd now?" he asked, motioning to the name above the bed.

Ben groaned. "Would you lot please leave me alone? I helped you out okay, now get out of my life, I haven't done anything wrong."

"This may shock you Mr. Holman but we're not here regarding your club. We're actually wondering how it came to be that you sustained a concussion, a broken leg and a fractured hand. No, don't tell me, you tripped over your perfectly clean record?"

"Yeah, I fell, okay?"

Stuart snorted. "Where did you fall off Mr. Holman? Big Ben?" He narrowed his eyes, taking a seat beside Holman on his crinkled white hospital sheets. They were so stiff they actually groaned under the pressure. "Now, if you'll kindly tell me the truth."

After about two minutes of silence, which Holman spent staring at his fingernails with belied interest, he finally coughed. "I was clearing out the back storeroom when someone hit me from behind with something." Stuart nodded for him to continue. "Didn't knock me out but put my vision out of whack. Then this guy starts cracking me on the leg. I put my arm up to defend myself and so my hand goes and the next moment I wake up in the back of an ambulance."

Stuart noted it down in his notebook quickly. "Okay, when was this?"

"About twelve-ish maybe?"

"And you couldn't identify him?"

"It was a bloke, I could tell from the power in the hits, but I couldn't see him and he didn't speak."

Stuart nodded to Stevie who ducked off to ring the station for someone to get down to the club and get some CCTV. "Now, I'm going to assume you don't have any enemies, being as clean cut as you are." A superior smile covered Stuart's face as Holman looked away. "But anyone stand out to you as who would want to do this? Any angry ex-customers?"

Holman nodded. "Just one. No idea who he was or why he did it, but there's one person I can think of who could be behind this."

*

"… mhm, yeah sure sarge, okay." Millie hung up, glancing up at the figure entering the room. "How's the kid?"

Max shrugged. "Fine." He paused at her desk. "Holman was at the hospital looking like someone got to him with a two-by-four."

"I know. Stuart called and told me to find the kid from two weeks ago, the one who trashed his club."

Max frowned, the name coming to him slowly. "He was Belgian. Yonelli or something like that." Millie brought the case up on the computer and scanned through the details, her finger pressed to the screen. Max was a faster reader and got to the name first. "Yanletti. Close enough." He headed back towards his desk. "Chase him up, immigration or something. Find an address."

Millie scowled at the computer. "Report is only half-finished. Whoever put it into the system didn't finish the j…" she stopped, catching herself, and Max looked at her with a frown.

"What?" Millie shook her head staunchly, closing the screen and bringing up a new screen to access addresses of Canley citizens. It was essentially a large telephone directory on the computer. But Max's interest was piqued and he pushed. "What? Who put the report in?"

Millie slumped. "You did sarge."

Max frowned then turned back to the pile of papers on his desk. In his 'out' collection he finally came across the statement. "Here we go. 14A Lavender Cres', Canley." He grabbed his coat and glanced at Millie as he passed her desk. "Well, coming?"

Not meeting his eyes Millie nodded. "Yes sarge."


	7. Yanletti

**Disclaimer: **Still don't own…

**A/N: **This is the chapter I referred to back in Chapter 10 of Natovnia. It helped prompt me back into writing after a very long hiatus. So three big cheers for the old guy at the top of my street who needs to cut back the trees and clear the broken lawn furniture from his yard! Hip hip…

Chapter Seven;  
Yanletti

"Sarge?"

Stuart glanced up from his computer as Nate's lively young voice wafted across the CID room. He was waving two DVD cases. "The CCTV footage from the Harley?" Stuart asked. Nate nodded eagerly. "Good boy." Swiping them from the PC's hand he inserted one into the DVD drive of his computer and clicked play. It took a few seconds to whir into life, time Nate and Mel Ryder took to get themselves comfortable on nearby chairs and tables. Eventually it came up showing an angle of the bar, a side-on view. It was too early for the attack so Stuart slammed fast-forward and glanced at Nate. "What's the angle on the other one?"

"Upstairs."

Stuart frowned. "He's got this huge club but only has two cameras – one on the bar and one upstairs?" Nate shrugged again. "Benjamin Holman may or may not be dodgy, but he certainly is another D-word: dumb." Mel snickered softly before Stuart noted he was nearing 11am and slowed down the fast-forward. After a few minutes of playing and skipping through they spotted movement at the bar. Ben appeared on screen, dumping an armful of papers on the bar. He turned in the direction of the camera and Stuart noted he was bruise-less. Attack obviously hadn't happened yet. Then Holman's head snapped up and Stuart guessed it wasn't far away. He went off the screen for a minute and when he returned it was being thrown back against the bar. The assailant had his back to the camera throughout the entire attack. Two blows with a metal pipe of some sort of the chest and leg, and one kick to the hand. It was quite a lot like what Holman had said, except for one thing…

"He was facing his attacker the entire time." Stuart frowned at the prone figure on his bar floor. "He knows perfectly well who beat him up."

*

Millie followed Max out of the car and they looked up at the small house before them. It was run-down, the front railing collapsed into the garden and the small patch of front lawn covered in broken garden furniture, bags of twigs and old toys. It was a dump. "He lives here?" Millie asked, frowning as the front gate buckled beneath her hand. It had definitely seen better days.

"Yeah." Max joined her on the front walkway. "Nice place."

Millie looked up at it with a frown. "Looks like the kind of place an old cat lady would live in." Max glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You know? Run out, start throwing cats at you."

Max hid a smile as he took a few steps up to the front door and rang the doorbell. He stepped back down to join Millie at the bottom of the stairs just as the wooden door opened and an old woman appeared. "Don't speak too soon." He said out of the corner of his mouth, Millie biting back a grin as Max flipped out his warrant card. Millie followed. "Ma'am, I'm DS Carter, this is PC Brown." Millie smiled at the woman as her eyes danced over the pair, assessing them. "Is Mr. Yanletti here?"

"He's got a VISA you know. He has a right to be here."

"We're not immigration ma'am. We're here about an assault we suspect Mr. Yanletti may know something about."

"He's a good boy, he didn't do anything." The woman protested, lowering her eyebrows like they'd just insulted the boy.

"We just need to speak to him please." Max tried again.

She nodded then turned back inside. "Andrei. Andrei." She said something in Flemish that neither officer recognized and a minute later the young Belgian teen stood in the doorway.

"Andrei Yanletti?" Max asked. The boy nodded tentatively, glancing up at the old lady. She simply scowled at the two police officers. "Could we ask you a few questions regarding your whereabouts this morning between the times of 11 and two?"

The lady spoke up. "He was here, with me."

Millie frowned and Max continued. "The whole time Mrs…"

"Ms. Greg. And yes, the whole time. I didn't go out, I stayed in and we watched television."

"What did you watch?" Millie asked, trying to call the woman's bluff.

"There was a four-hour marathon of Absolutely Fabulous from 10 to 2." She reached behind her and drew up a television guide, stabbing it with her finger. "There's your proof." It was anything but proof, but they couldn't really discredit it either. "Who is Andrei supposed to have attacked?"

"A local bar owner." Max looked sternly at the boy and he looked away. "Do you have any idea who it could be mister Yanletti?"

"Holman," Andrei replied, his words heavily accented but easy enough to understand.

Max nodded. "That's right. He was beaten up this morning by a young man, and we suspect that this young man was you."

"Prove it!" Ms. Greg yelled as Andrei muttered a soft 'no'.

As Max glared down the older lady, Millie lowered herself to meet Andrei's gaze. "Andrei, why do you hate Ben Holman? Why did you trash his bar?"

Andrei opened his mouth to reply, but Ms. Greg beat him to the punch. "We're done with the questions. Unless you have proof he's involved or you arrest him, he's not answering any more of your accusations." She shoved him back inside rather forcefully. "Good day." Then, without another word she slammed the door in their faces.

"Um, okay, thank you for your time then," Millie muttered, raising her eyebrows at Max. He shook his head and, stepping past a caving in lawn table, started back to the car.

"What did you think? Was he the attacker?" Millie asked as she pulled open the passenger side door.

"I don't know. The old lady was a bit knowledgeable though. She knew too much about the system, like she's been here before."

"She didn't let Andrei get a word in edgewise. He looked scared of her." She gave a small smile. "To be honest I was a little scared of her."

"Me too." Max tapped the roof of the car, looking back at the house as the front curtain moved. Mrs. Greg was watching to make sure they were leaving. "Look, call her in, run a check, she's far too weird for my liking."

Millie frowned. "Weird? Like, weird how?"

"Like..." Max raised an arm and feigned throwing something, doing a scarily good impersonation of a scared cat. "Reow." Millie snickered then grabbed her radio and called in the woman's details.

**  
A/N: **To clear up, last chapter I referred to epilepsy as a disease, this was a mistake on my part not through lack of knowledge of the condition but through phrasing. Epilepsy is not a disease, you can't catch it by going near people who have it, and in many senses nor should it be seen as a condition because for many people its not a major burden on their lives. Epilepsy isn't cancer or emphysema, it can't kill you and it's not like the black plague, you can't catch it by being near others. It is, however, something very few understand. An Australian rugby league hero who had epilepsy once had one of his convulsions described as satanic, but it's not something wrong or horrible. To learn more about it go to epilepsy (dot) com and help raise awareness so more people understand that it's not something to fear…


	8. Greg

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing.

**A/N: **At the moment listening to the heroic story of a school bus driver whose back wheel came off the bus as he was crossing a dam. On one side a full dam and the other side a huge drop. He saved the kids! Now you've heard the exciting story of the day, back to my not-so-exciting one…

Chapter Eight;  
Greg

"She was terrifying. Went rabid dog on him as he walked out." Millie muttered, tapping away at the computer. To say Ms. Greg had piqued her interest was an understatement. Now back in the office she scrolled through the foreign words until she found what she was looking for then wrote it down. The check had earlier left them with nothing on Ms. Greg. She had no outstanding warrants for her arrest and no apparent record. But there was something about her Millie didn't like and now she had a good idea why. "She makes Margaret Thatcher look like a puppy dog."

Stevie glanced at Millie's computer. "What are you doing?"

"Following up on some suspicions." She found the last word then glared at the sentence. Just as she'd suspected. "'Don't tell them anything or else'" she read, sighing.

Stevie frowned. "What?"

"What Ms. Greg said in Flemish as Andrei walked out. As we were heading back here I remembered it. She said 'vertel hen om het even wat niet of anders'as Andrei walked out to talk to us. She was threatening him to shut up."

"With good reason too," Max spoke up from the desk across, having listened to Millie's words but made no effort to show he had. "She's got a record here a mile long." Millie and Stevie joined him on his desk. "Ms. Greg is her birth name, but her married name is..."

"Sandra Kowalski, you've got to be kidding me." Stevie muttered.

"No, I'm not. It appears Sandra Greg married Richard Kowalski, Nikolai Brecht's uncle, before he died in 1994." Max said, trailing through her details. "Some early charges of prostitution, back in the early nineties when she was in her 50s. Now there's a nasty image." Max actually shuddered and Millie smiled. "Two for drug trafficking, minor charges in 1999. She served three years at Her Majesty's leisure. Released in October 2002. Suspected of drug trafficking again in 2005 and then suspected of people trafficking in 2008. Last arrest was January this year when she was caught loitering outside the ports. No proof on what she was up to but with a record like hers we can guess it was due to some sort of trafficking."

"No wonder she knew the system, she's a criminal matriarch." Stevie started back to her seat. "So now we've got Nikolai Brecht's aunt looking after the kid who trashed the bar that Nikolai Brecht drinks in when he's socializing with suspected human trafficker Craig Bolt, a pastime she also partakes in. It's like Elton John's Circle of Life!"

"Don't even try and think about how Natovnia and the rest fit into this." Millie pushed herself up off Max's desk and returned to her own, clicking off the Flemish to English Online Dictionary and scrunching up the paper to throw it in the bin. "So what do we do about her? We don't have any reason to arrest her."

Max shook his head in agreement. "No, nothing, we can only watch her." He glanced at Stevie. "Hey, I didn't ask where Stuart went."

"Oh," Stevie said off-handedly, glancing back at them unaware she hadn't mentioned it when she walked in. "He's at St. Hugh's interviewing Holman again. The creep lied…"

"Go figure." Millie muttered under her breath.

"… about knowing the guy who beat him up." Stevie continued. "Nate and Mel got footage and Holman wasn't just looking right at him, he was talking to him as well."

Max shook his head, clicking through his files until he found the one on Nicholas Delaney's interview gone wrong. The DI wanted the report in less than an hour. "Doesn't surprise me. Got a view of him? Was it Yanletti?"

Stevie shrugged. "There was nothing on the video to identify him, but maybe Stuart will have more luck?"

*

"You're a liar Mr. Holman. A dirty, rotten liar."

The nurse who was attending to Mr. Holman's wounds looked up, noted the uniformed Nate Roberts behind Stuart, and dashed off without a word. Ben just shrunk lower under the covers. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"How about this: we saw the footage from your bar and guess what? We saw you talking to your attacker!" Stuart gave a cold, almost mocking smile. "Now, do you want to tell us who it was or are you too scared?"

The Harley Club's usually cocky owner was beaten again and his face showed it. He sighed and gave in. "It was the Bolt kid."

Stuart frowned. "Nice try Mr. Holman but Samuel Bolt and his family are well and truly accounted for."

"Fine, whatever you believe, but it was Samuel Bolt. He told me he was after CCTV footage, was chasing up that Andrea woman himself he said. I told him he was nuts, to leave well alone, but he was determined to get it."

"What'd you do?"

"I couldn't give to him what I don't have. I've never had any decent stills of Natovnia's woman. Barely seen her before the bust, really, she's never around. Course Bolt didn't buy it, told me I was a lying scumbag and that I couldn't be trusted cos I worked with Craig Bolt. The most I've done for Craig Bolt is serve him some drinks, buy some stuff, that's all." He paused. "Personal use only." He clarified.

Stuart sighed. "Then what?"

"Said I'd call your lot." He motioned to Nate. "I turned back to grab my bookwork, assumed he'd gone, but then he's right there again holding one of the rejected steel bars from the new railings we're putting in. Starts laying into me with it. The rest is as I said."

"Samuel Bolt?" Holman nodded. Stuart frowned again. "And you're not giving me bull this time?" Another shake from the bar owner's head. "Fine, I'll check this." Wandering away from Holman Stuart glanced at Nate. "Call the station, tell Millie and Stevie to get down to the Bolt place. I have to get onto Witness Protection. If Samuel's allowed out to beat up bar owners, as much as they probably deserve it, it puts him in line to get a beating of his own." Nate nodded and grabbed his radio, starting off as he spoke into it. Stuart just glanced at Holman before withdrawing his phone and punching in the numbers.


	9. Andrea

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. Except my precious baby Alfie which I write this on! –huggles him-

Chapter Nine;  
Andrea

Eleanor opened the door and gave Millie and Stevie a warm smile, but it didn't reach her eyes, something that didn't surprise Millie after everything that had happened, but still intrigued her. "Oh hey," she waved them in, "what're you doing here?"

"It's about your brother."

Eleanor's smile fell quickly. "He's uh…" she glanced back at Andrea who'd entered the room. "He's gone."

Stevie slumped. "What?"

"We couldn't stop him. He said he'd had enough of being locked away like a criminal and left." Andrea explained as Eleanor scuffed the carpet with the toe of her sneaker. "He went the back way as David spoke to Witness Protection. They don't know he's gone."

"So, in other words, you didn't just LET him go, you helped him?" Stevie blew up as Millie frowned at Eleanor who now refused to meet anyone's eye. "He's putting himself in danger by leaving here and you just let him?"

"My children aren't criminals!" Andrea blew back, frowning at the DC with venom in her eyes. "Why should they be locked up?" Stevie gave an angry sigh before grabbing her phone and stalking into the relative quiet of the lounge room nearby. "The real criminals should be locked up." Andrea muttered, turning her eye on Millie as if hoping the uniformed officer would see what the detective could not.

But Millie wasn't keen for nice today. She'd worked hard to get the higher-ups to give the Roxon and Bolt families a chance. Now they were throwing that in her face. She turned right back on Andrea with a few accusations of her own. "How well do you know Nikolai Brecht, Archibald Natovnia or Ben Holman?" Andrea was speechless. "Or what about the Harley Club? Ever been there?"

"What are you asking?" Her voice wobbled with uncertainty.

"I'm not asking anything actually, it's more a sort of accusation, see your son beat up Mr. Holman this afternoon because he wanted to know more about a woman Natovnia calls a confidant. A tall, thin, well-dressed woman known only as Andrea." Eleanor looked up at this. "Coincidence Ms. Roxon that not only has she your name, your looks and connections but has also now caused your son so much distress that he'll put his life on the line, as well as beat up a relative innocent, for information."

"I am not the woman you're looking for PC Brown and it disgusts me that you'd even insinuate that."

"Much like it disgusts me that any mother, who has finally got her son back from the clutches of death, would let him back out into a world that wants him dead."

Andrea's face flushed angrily. "How dare you?" Beth Green and few others from Witness Protection chose this moment to walk in. "How dare you question my love for my son?" With an angry finger pointed ahead of her, she showed Millie the right way to leave. "Get out! Get out of my house and don't come back!"

Turning on her heel and flashing Beth and Stevie a blank look, Millie did just that.

*

The near-empty CID room met DC Sparks' eyes as she walked back in that afternoon, released from the confines of St. Hugh's barely half an hour earlier. She recognized a few faces but none on the case so, with a sigh, took a seat at Stuart's desk and flicked through the file before her, a brief summary of what they'd found so far all jotted down in Stuart's disturbingly neat handwriting. She was soon distracted by Neil Manson's voice as he re-entered the office, catching sight of her and calling her name.

Hayleigh glanced up quickly. "Five minutes of your time if you have it to spare?" She gave a quick nod and followed him into his office with a small scoff.

"I have that and then some sir." With the briefest of smiles he shut the door behind her and offered her a seat. "What's this about?"

"I received a call last night from Manchester Central. According to them they haven't had an update on how the case is going for over a week. You were supposed to be updating them through their head of investigation."

Hayleigh frowned. "I know sir but, see, there was a change of head. The old head moved on and left his second-in-charge in control."

Neil checked his notes. "Detective Sergeant Faison."

"That right sir, Faison." Hayleigh gave a small sigh. "DS Faison and I worked together for a while sir. He knew I was undercover and to be honest I think he resented the fact I got sent under when it was really he who wanted the job. Thought I was lucky whereas he deserved it because he was smarter."

"Yeah, well, unless you start updating him more often he says he's going to come down to 'help out'." Neil's comment came complete with air quotation marks. Hayleigh found interest in the carpet. "Do you think you're capable of that or will I have to ask someone else?"

There was a long pause and then Hayleigh gave a bright smile. "Perfectly fine. I'll clear the air when I next call him."

"Well, better sooner than later. He's expecting a call for updates right now. You can fill him on what you know, the rest should be on Stuart's desk." Hayleigh's smile fell quickly and Neil repeated the previous question.

"Sure, fine, thanks sir." Hayleigh trudged off, her head down, and back to her desk. Neil watched her go with furrowed eyebrows. There was something else going on in the head of DC Sparks, that much he was certain of, but this behaviour hadn't eased his worry one bit. Quickly he sat down at the computer and bought up again her history in the force. There was a lot to read but he skimmed it quickly, glancing up at Hayleigh every time he hit something new. And every time he looked he noted she still hadn't picked up the phone.


	10. Green

**Disclaimer: **Bet I could own it now if I wanted to. Reckon it's going cheap? Damaged goods and all that?

**A/N: **For Krissie who will NEVER get her Math! Mwah ha ha!

Chapter Ten;  
Green

Max had been the one who opted to stand outside and chat with the small contingent of Witness Protection as the women went in and dealt with the family. Max didn't like 'family business', even his own disgusted him, but he did like arrests. He'd happily just wait out here until Samuel Bolt made his appearance (or lack thereof which now seemed likelier by the minute as they ticked on). It was why he was stunned when Beth, whom he'd been chatting to cheerily, snatched up her phone with a frown. Her frown deepened when she heard the news, snapping the phone shut and motioning for the two men with her to move.

"What is it?" Max asked, unhappy to be out of the loop for the first time ever. He preferred being right at the centre of each and every loop.

"That was DC Moss. Bolt's done a bunk and apparently Andrea covered it up." They rushed inside, leaving Max with the proverbial dust blown in his face. He leant back on the WP car with a frown, crossing his arms and watching the door. It was why he was the first one to see Millie Brown almost tug the door off its hinges as she stormed out, her eyes blazing and creating a rather scary image alongside her blowing red hair. He was pretty sure he'd never seen Millie like this before. To be honest he thought Millie had two settings – weepy and nice or shy and nice. Now she stormed from the Roxon safe house like a bat out of hell.

"PC Brown?" Max called as she started back towards the car, but he was beaten to the question by a smaller, angrier figure. Beth Green had just reappeared outside.

"What the hell was that?" Millie turned on her old friend with a scowl and Beth mirrored it perfectly. "Andrea is distraught. What did you say?"

"I just asked her a few questions. It's not my fault if she has something to hide." There was a ferocity in Millie's tone that almost made Max step back. Whoever this person was, it wasn't the Millie Brown he thought he had summed up; she was blowing that girl right out of the ballpark. "And if she's distraught then maybe she should've thought of that before she let her son go."

"What did you say?" Beth demanded, not keen to step around the issue. You had to admire that from the pint-sized baby-faced PC – she didn't take 'no' for an answer.

"I asked her what she knew of one of our suspects. A woman named Andrea of all things."

This made Max intervene. "You did what?"

Millie turned her attention on him and this time Max did step back, taken aback by the fire and hurt in her eyes. Millie wasn't just angry, she was distraught herself. "You think it's just a coincidence Max? Samuel doesn't seem to think so, I'm sure of it, that's why he beat Holman up to get the tapes. He and I both think Natovnia's 'banker' is his mother."

"If he thought that he would've said so in the interview," Max began to reason but it was pointless.

"Oh yeah? Well he also said he'd stay in the safe house but guess what, he didn't!" She pointed back to the house. "He was quiet in there and then something set him off. Something happened yesterday or today that convinced him Andrea is involved, that's why he ran off. We need to search that place, interview the Roxons again."

"You aren't touching them, they're in protective custody now, in our car…"

Millie cut her off. "Your care? Yeah, bang up job you've done so far!"

Beth prodded Millie hard in the shoulder. "Don't start this PC Brown. You pulled this family into this, not me, so don't go screwing up our leg."

Max pulled Beth away, coming between them. "Look, this isn't solving anything." It was unchartered territory for Max playing go-between. It was usually he who was jeopardising reasonable thought. Now, however, he was caught between two women he had a lot of respect for and to be honest he thought both had a very good point. He too had been intrigued by Natovnia's ally and her striking similarities to Andrea Roxon. Plus with Craig's connections was it so hard to believe the sister-in-law was involved? It wouldn't be the first time the girl had gone for the other brother, if that were the motive, or maybe because Craig provided a safety David couldn't? Either way, the idea was planted in Max's mind all along. But Beth had a point too – they needed the Roxons co-operative and alive. Getting Andrea Roxon offside wasn't going to help anyone. Without Eleanor's evidence against her uncle they had little reason to arrest him and drag with him the others (pulling them up from the ground like a line of weeds he liked to think). If Andrea bailed she'd take her daughter with her and there went most of their case. He shoved Millie back softly as she stepped forwards again. "PC Brown, wait in the car." Millie frowned but did what she was told as usual. So, the normal Millie was still in there after all? As she left Max turned on Beth. "Lay off alright? She feels strongly about this case."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Oh please, like she's the only one? Either put her on a leash Max or I'm going to my DI to request she stays away from this family." With a turn she stalked back into the house.

Millie was sitting gruffly in the front seat as Max joined her, death staring the dashboard in a manner that made even Max shudder a little. "Are you going to tell me what that was really about?" Millie just shrugged. "PC Brown, I know you're not the type to lash out for no reason, so what was it?"

Millie bit her lip. "It's stupid but I know there's something else going on in there." She glanced at him, the desire for support clear in her expression, and instantly he knew what he had to say. "You don't think I'm being ridiculous do you?"

"Millie, you have a copper's instinct second-to-none, something you showed everyone a few weeks back when you taught everyone not to misjudge single mothers with criminals for brothers and husbands." Millie smiled softly at the memory of Jade. She'd been in contact since the hostage situation. Lewis was growing up so fast. He was crawling around now like an eager little bugger. "So," Max continued, "if you say there's something going on then I'm inclined to believe you, but just remember – you need evidence."

"I'll get it sarge, we just need to keep a closer eye on them."

"Correction, we need to find Samuel and find out what he knows. If you're right and he beat up Holman to find out if, or maybe even cover that, Andrea is Natovnia's ally, he's in serious danger. Holman wants to convince us he's clean, but I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."

Millie smiled softly, sniffing back the earliest onset of tears. Yeah, old Millie was still there. "Okay, so what about Beth? She's not going to let me anywhere near the Roxons again. Eleanor and I have a bond, she'll talk to me."

Max shrugged. "You could always apologize." Millie looked scandalized for a second but Max spoke over her. "You don't have to mean it, just say it to get back onside." He pushed open the car door. "How do you think I get away with so much?" Then, stepping out and shutting the door behind him, Max started towards the Roxon house. With a sly smile Millie eventually followed.


	11. Libey

**Disclaimer: **I still don't own this slowly dying brand!

Chapter Eleven;  
Libey

"How was the family from hell?" Stuart asked as Max and Millie returned, Millie silently sulking as she remembered being forced to apologize. She'd spent the rest of the ride home staring at the dashboard and pretending she hadn't relented. She knew she was right and that something was going on there and to be honest not knowing left her feeling utterly helpless. She hated that feeling.

"Unhelpful," Max responded, barely blinking. Millie glanced up at him but Max gave nothing away about Millie's one-girl campaign to take down Andrea Roxon. "Witness Protection didn't take too well to the idea they sold out their son. They want to relocate them again, keep Samuel, if they find him, away from them for now."

"That's a pretty good idea." Stuart glanced sideways at Millie but when she didn't meet his eye he continued. "Look, Stevie's quickly making new friends down at Kingmarsh and wants me and one lucky person to join her at Libey's Betting Shop on Holt." Stevie had left after Millie had blown up at Andrea, citing a call. Max hadn't even realised she'd gone, too caught in keeping Beth Green and Millie from killing one-another. "Apparently the bookie down there is a good friend of our young pal Mr. Goodwin. A father-like figure in fact."

Max raised an eyebrow at Stuart's typically cryptic response. "His father?"

"No, step-father, but good guess." Stuart grinned proudly. "Now, which one of you is joining me? Kezia's chasing CCTV and Hayleigh is caught up with, well, I don't know but the DI just told me to go find someone else so, any volunteers?"

"PC Brown, go with him." Max said, taking a seat at his desk quickly, not even looking up as he said it. Millie didn't make a face, knowing full well why she'd been ushered from the office, and just nodded.

Stuart glanced between them but said nothing. "Okay Millie, let's roll." He looked at Max as the pair left but the DS was enthralled by a piece of paper and didn't look up. Only problem with Max's acting was that his eyes weren't moving at all. With a brief shake of his head Stuart left.

* * *

Stevie had been sitting outside the bookies for twenty minutes before boredom got the better of her and she started talking to herself. It was then that she knew she needed to get out of the car, DS or no. So, flicking open the driver's side door of her little red CID hatch, she stepped out into the sunshine, thankful summer was approaching faster than usual.

Stepping round the car towards the sidewalk she was about to lean against the brick wall opposite and pretend to be making a phone call when a large man walked out of the bookies, stopped and motioned her over. Busted! Withdrawing her warrant card she crossed the road.

He wrinkled his nose as she got close enough to talk to. "Do I smell some bacon?"

She waved the warrant card. "No, Red Delicious." Stevie smiled, holding up a wrist for him to smell. He just frowned deeper. "Anyway, from the look of things you only smell pies." She gave him a hearty prod in the belly with every second word and adopted a child-like tone. "Lots and lots of pies." He slapped her hand away. "Now, I'm assuming you're this place's proprietor?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

Stevie flicked out her notepad to buy some time, even though she knew full well who he was. "Paul Libey, married to Genevieve Goodwin and step-father of Bryce Goodwin?" He grunted, the closest he seemed able to come to 'yes, that's me'. Stevie smiled. "Great, good to know I'm in the right place."

He seemed to have caught on to her stalling though. "Waiting for some back-up Detective Constable?" She shrugged nonchalantly. "You've nothing to fear from me."

Stevie laughed. "Oh I don't doubt that Mr. Libey, you look like you haven't run in months. It's your friends I worry more about."

"You're looking for Bolt?" Stevie's eyes snapped up from the pavement. "Yeah, I heard he went AWOL, right after I lent him £10,000 too the scummy bastard."

Stevie's eyes narrowed. "How do you know him?"

The question was quick but Libey had already predicted it and came with a watertight response, his lips just as watertight as he smiled through his lie. "He's a client Constable. I can show you the books if you'd like."

"Client? That what you call them?"

"Patrons, customers, whichever you'd prefer." Stevie noticed from the corner of her eye the deep blue car belonging to Sun Hill CID. Stuart and Millie stepped out not long after. "Whatever you call them, they pay the rent, unless they're Bolt of course."

"So, you often lend £10,000 to your 'client's then?"

Libey gave a toothy smile. "Just the pretty ones."

"DS Turner, PC Brown, Sun Hill." Stuart stepped up behind Stevie and the pair flicked out their warrant cards. "Mr. Libey?"

Libey nodded. "A PC, DC and DS? It's like a collection! All I need now is an Inspector."

"Keep being unhelpful Mr. Libey and I'm sure we can organize that." Stevie grinned somewhat coldly.

He laughed. "Oh you're growing on me small one." He turned his attention to Stuart as Stevie scowled. "Look, as I told DC Midget here, I know Craig Bolt, he's one of my customers and I recently lent him £10,000."

"Out of the kindness of his heart." Stevie added spitefully.

Libey glanced sideways at her. "You know, my wife had a Maltese Terrier like you once." Stevie stayed still, just glaring. Libey looked back at Stuart. "I've lent Bolt small amounts before and he'd always repaid them. I trusted he'd repay this. But the first repayment was due three days ago and there's been nothing." He shrugged. "Probably used it to skip the country."

"Airports and docks are being watched." Millie piped up.

"Oh good," Libey muttered facetiously, "there's no way through now."

"You know Mr. Libey, I wouldn't be quite so cocky if I were facing charges for funding illegal activities." Stuart responded without even batting an eyelid at Libey's arrogance.

And Libey didn't care what Stuart said either. "Prove I know what's it's being used for." He leant forward a little and lowered his voice. "Just prove it DS Turner."

Stuart smiled. "I plan to."


	12. Spark

**Disclaimer: **Ask me tomorrow

Chapter Twelve;  
Spark

Max tapped the desk impatiently, his eyes scanning the report he'd just been emailed, an analysis of the day's events at the Roxon house, courtesy of a still irate Beth Green. Naturally the Witness Protection constable hadn't beat around the bush in her displeasure at Millie's behaviour.

Normally Max would have simply printed the whole thing off and let Millie bear the weight herself, but today he felt strangely more accepting of Millie's stance. She'd proven before that she had a skill for reading people, and the fact that Max agreed with her this time certainly helped sway the cause. He highlighted Beth's two lines on Millie, hit the delete button, and then printed it off. He signed it as it slipped out of the printer and didn't feeling the least bit guilty about it. Beth's report wouldn't go to court anyway so what did it matter?

Max date-stamped it and walked it to the DI's inbox just outside his office door. His timing seemed to be too perfect as DC Hayleigh Spark chose this exact moment to emerge from the office looking like someone had drowned her kitty cat. She glanced at Max as he passed, her face blank as she passed him back towards her desk. Neil followed her from the office frowning briefly at Max as he passed, somewhat questioning about why Max had taken to lurking outside his office during seemingly deep discussion with the out-of-town DC. A DC Max had managed to alienate on more than one occasion.

Max didn't blame the DI for the look, instead simply motioning to the report he'd just placed in the DI's inbox.

"Witness Protection are moving the Roxons again, report just came through. They'll inform us of the new place by the end of the week."

Neil nodded mutely and Max seized the chance to escape back to his desk. "We're going to have a new member join the team on Monday," Neil explained, his attempts to be nonchalant failed as he scanned Beth's (slightly edited) report. "Detective Sergeant Faison from Manchester will be aiding our investigation."

"Keeping an eye on us you mean?" Max muttered, watching Hayleigh flick through a folder, stop, then flick through again. She looked agitated but Max paid her no heed until she spoke.

"Guv, I have a witness report to follow up on, if that's alright with you?"

Neil nodded, barely registering the request. As she stood, grabbed her notepad and rushed from the room, Neil looked at Max. "Go with her, make sure she doesn't get herself in any more trouble." Max made to protest but Neil shook his head. "No Max, just go." With a sigh Max stood and followed her from the room. Neil filed Beth's report then re-entered his office.

* * *

"Well he was a charmer, wasn't he?" Stuart hopped back into the car, taking the passenger's seat this time. Stevie was still fuming as she returned to her car and, after making a call to Kingmarsh, had driven off to talk to them, leaving Stuart and Millie with a broadly smiling Libey. He'd excused himself quickly, his moves rushed but in no way alarmed by the DS and PC.

Millie shrugged. "I know a few people who are worse."

Stuart glanced at her but she didn't elaborate, staying silent as she started the car. The rest of the trip was silent until Stuart got a call, turned towards the window and lowered his voice. Her interest piqued, Millie's ears pricked up. "Yeah, did you find anything about her?" Stuart murmured through the response as Millie's mind listed every single name she could think of. If it were case-related then why drop his tone? So who was Stuart talking about? "Where? Mhm, yeah I can meet you there in five. Okay." He hung up, glancing at Millie. "Take Bordlan Avenue." He said nothing else until they came to the corner and Stuart suggested she pull over.

"Need any help sarge?" Millie asked.

Stuart shook his head. "No problems, just drop me here, I gotta go see a man about a dog." He jumped out and started into the pub nearby. Millie just drove off without a second thought, but still she couldn't help wondering what Stuart was hiding from everyone involved.

* * *

Max didn't like babysitting, especially not for someone he barely knew like DC Spark, and she didn't seem too happy with the job either. "You don't have to follow me around, I'm not a child."

"This isn't out of choice DC Spark, this is out of necessity. If anything happens to you it's not your head on the chopping block, it's mine."

Hayleigh gave him an incredulous look. "If something happens to me then it most certainly is MY head on the block, literally."

He waved her response off nonchalantly. "You know what I mean."

"Fine, since protecting your job is seemingly all I'm here for, I promise to be good. Now, if it's okay with you, I'm going to retire to the nearest café where I can pretend that in the coming days I won't have to deal with Arthur Faison."

His interest piqued, Max followed her into a small red wallpapered café house with garish red seating and pictures of coffee on the walls. It looked like it had been designed by something with a knack for disgusting and his tongue firmly wedged in his cheek. "Who is this guy anyway and what's your problem with him?"

"His was an old workmate in Manchester. I do, of course, use the term 'mate' sparingly because to be honest the guy had it out for me." She looked away from him for a second to order a large café latte, takeaway. When she turned back she saw Max's frown. "I know it's hard to believe but apparently some people don't automatically warm to me."

Max understood what she meant, but said nothing. "What'd he do though?"

"He didn't do anything exactly, but he set about psyching me out for the rest of my time there, second guessing my work ethic and connections to the Bolt case. When he found out I'd been placed on the investigation instead of him he was furious." Hayleigh picked up a few straws of sugar and started to slap them upon the inside of her wrist as she reminisced. "He had been doing the leg work on the case, I wouldn't deny that, but he was absolutely abysmal when it came to undercover, couldn't lie to save himself. In the real world that's wonderful but I don't think I need to tell you how bad it is when you need to lie on the daily basis to a man who will happily kill you if you don't do exactly what he wants and when. So I was put in instead and Arthur was furious. At first it was little things – snide remarks, a few drive-by visits and even once threatened to charge me right in front of Bolt. Craig 'came to my aid' of course which seemed to make Arthur even more unhappy, I'd won over the suspect in a way he knew he never could, he'd been outdone and he didn't like it."

Max frowned as she took her coffee from the waitress with a smile, opened it and tipped the three sugars inside before blowing into it quickly and repositioning the lid. "So that's why you're worried he's come back?"

Hayleigh laughed coldly. "Oh no, that's not why Arthur Faison worries me." She shrugged. "That's typical 'green-eyed monster' stuff, stuff we can all admit to, but he went further." She sighed. "Faison promised he'd bring me down after the second time Craig got away with minor misdemeanours. He didn't understand why I kept fishing him out; unaware we had bigger fish to fry than a drink-driving offence and a drug possession. Faison didn't know about Natovnia and the connections, wasn't trusted with the information because of past connections, a few crooked friends in olden days. Faison wasn't someone you left your kid with, that's all I'll say, so he wasn't in the loop. When he realised he wasn't, saw that I was getting Bolt away with charges he'd worked hard on, he wasn't happy."

"And?" Max couldn't deny that he was now intrigued.

"He wants to bring me down for corruption, is certain I'm in on the whole thing, that I've gone under." She shrugged. "And when it comes to Arthur Faison who really knows what he's capable of. He's a dangerous man Max, that's all I can be certain of, and he's got his sights set on me."


	13. Wilkins

**Disclaimer: **I had a disclaimer prepared, really, I did… okay fine, I didn't. F… yes, I understand why…

**A/N: **I'm so angry at myself for how long this took to update. I fell into another ridiculously long writer's block, came back through a different genre, and have finally worked my way back to this. Of course now that The Bill is dead, who knows who's still reading this? Review if you are and feel free to abuse my long hiatus. I deserve it. *hangs head in shame*

Chapter Thirteen;  
Wilkins

"Why not just turn him in?"

Hayleigh rolled her eyes. "No!" she muttered facetiously, "that never occurred to me!" She sipped her coffee slowly. "He has connections, crooked connections, but connections nonetheless." She frowned at a memory she seemed determined not to share. "People a little higher up the ladder than anyone involved with the investigation into Craig and Natovnia. People who didn't need to know everything we did to get him."

Max stopped walking. "So what you're really saying is, not everything about your investigation back at Manchester, your time undercover, was all by the book?"

Hayleigh nodded slowly, putting her up down and pulling her mahogany-red hair into a ponytail, her injured wrist making it difficult. "My DI, Wilkins was his name, was determined to get a result. It started off normally, everything was fine, and then Natovnia came into the scene full time." She sat down slowly but Max didn't follow, simply crossing his arms and watching her. Around them the busy main street continued as if the two figures weren't even there. "He'd been there on the fringes for a while, started this undercover business actually, when he and Craig were first spotted together. But Craig was our target from the start. He was Manchester's menace, or so the local papers liked to call him, and everyone wanted him out." She shrugged. "I guess Wilkins was just determined to be the one who did it."

"What'd you do that DS Faison could use? I mean, getting Bolt off minor charges, that's nothing."

"Assault charge. There was this girl who worked for him and she hated me. I thought she knew who I really was for a while there, we almost pulled the plug on it, but we pushed our luck. Anyway, came back one day to find her fighting with Craig, he was defending my honour I guess. I let it go. He'd never been very violent with the girls before, just a few pushes, a shove or two but the next day she 'fell' down the stairs." She took a mouthful of coffee. "She survived but claimed Craig had pushed her. I made it disappear."

"How?"

"Witness Protection. I told Craig I'd 'got rid of her' and we moved on, but she's still in Witness Protection, she could still talk." She shrugged. "Faison always thought I went too far under, that I got sucked in, and in hindsight maybe he had a point, maybe I did, but he let his jealousy get too far. He threatened to bring me down and he had the chances until I left Manchester. After that I was on my own. The Manchester arm stayed up and running, for all intents and purposes, but Faison couldn't keep an eye on me anymore. I could just do my job without having to watch my back all the time."

Max frowned. "You said he had crooked connections?" Hayleigh nodded. "What type?"

"Not THAT type." Hayleigh warned, seemingly knowing where he was going with the line of questioning. "He used to be with the line-walkers, used to make his own rules, but then his job was put in jeopardy after a previous Inspector went down for corruption. Since then he's been determined to prove to anyone and everyone that he's not crooked."

"By proving everyone else is?"

Hayleigh tapped the side of her nose with a smile as she finished her coffee. She stood and tossed the empty container into a nearby bin. "Don't ask me why he's after me so bad but I guess everyone has their guilty little obsession." She shrugged. "Whatever the reason, the DI wants him back down here, so now…" Another shrug. "It's back on."

"Where's DS Turner?" Neil passed Millie as she walked back into the office.

"He had me drop him off on Bordlan guv." Millie sat down at Banksy's desk and rifled through some files Hayleigh had left there.

"Okay," the DI put something down on in front of her. "You can take this then. DC Spark is hesitant to fill our Manchester connection in, a bad history I think, so if you could take it you'd make my day PC Brown."

"Happy to help guv." She opened the file and picked up the phone, pressing it between her ear and shoulder, dialling quickly. A gruff male voice answered. "Hi, DS Faison, I'm PC Brown. You were expecting an update on the Bolt case?"

"If you're expecting a cup of tea and a heart-to-heart you can dream on." They'd walked until they found themselves outside the police accommodation, a small white hotel-like building not far from the nick, owned and run by the Met on behalf of their members. It wasn't the best place to live, the rooms small and untidy, but it was cheaper than a hotel or renting.

"Oh, you show a little chivalry and this is what you get?" Max raised an eyebrow and Hayleigh smiled. "No, now I can tell the guv you're safe, maybe I can go back to my real job."

"Of doing what? Emotionally abusing Millie Brown?" Max acted like he hadn't heard her, looking up at the building quietly. "Fine, fine, I'm staying out of it." Hayleigh withdrew keys from her pocket and opened up the front door of the boarding house. "See you in the morning DS Ca…"

She didn't get to finish her sentence as an older man, about 50, stepped out through the open door. "DC Spark?" Hayleigh and Max both look up at him. "I was about to call you. Come." He started upstairs and Hayleigh followed, Max tagging along, unsure why. They followed the man to the third floor before they saw the open door at the end. Hayleigh's shoulders slumped. "I checked the CCTV Constable. It was the man you warned me to look out for. He had a key!"

Hayleigh patted the old man on the arm. "It's okay Robert, there's nothing you could have done, go back downstairs." As Robert passed Max gave him a wry smile then followed Hayleigh to the door. Her room had been trashed and written in what seemed to be red lipstick, on her ensuite mirror were the words 'miss me darling?'. "Craig's always been just this classy." Hayleigh muttered, picking up a broken hairdryer. "How'd he get a key though?"

Max leant on the doorway. "It's not safe for you to stay here anymore." Hayleigh shrugged. "He's threatened you enough times and the DI wants you safe so, pack up some stuff, alternative accommodation time." Max pulled out as phone and Hayleigh grabbed some things. "Guv? Problem at DC Spark's place. I'll fill you in when I get back."


	14. Sandman

**Disclaimer: **I stole this disclaimer from a monkey. He owns The Bill. I just own his disclaimer!

**A/N: **aww, you guys with all your love and support. *gets teary* Nah, I'm good. I just have a long week of reading all your story updates now. Gosh I am so far behind. Didn't let up on the Mallie did you? Us Mallie-ites, we rule! Clare and Chris owe us some serious respect! lol. And extra kudos for Lala and chez Carter. I couldn't help it. Jealous Millie is fun Millie…

Chapter Fourteen;  
Sandman

Millie spooned the cocoa and sugar into her favourite mug, frowning as her flatmate turned her stereo up to cover the screaming kettle, and leant on the kitchen counter patiently. It had been a long day. Heck, it had been a long fortnight. It had been mere days since the investigation into Bolt had started but Millie felt tired in ways she never had before. The emotional disaster that was the Roxon women, the missing Samuel, the ongoing trauma of working alongside Max Carter, a man who still, even after all this time, seemed determined to undermine everyone around him.

Just that afternoon he'd returned with a slightly shaken DC Spark and the information someone had broken into Hayleigh's flat. Millie sat the DC down and got her coffee as Max busied himself with being unhelpful by constantly asking who was behind this, was it someone she knew, how could he single-handedly fix the problem and become a hero again?

Millie smiled softly to herself. Okay, so she'd added that last bit in her head, but still… it was likely he was thinking it.

Then he'd mentioned Faison.

Millie glanced across at the kettle willing it to hurry up. DS Faison. He'd been so nice on the phone, so friendly, something that Millie wasn't quite used to after working with Max for 9 days straight. Okay, so he'd uncharacteristically stood up for her against that terrier Beth Green but he was still impossible 95% of the time. Faison seemed so genuine and when he said he knew things about Hayleigh that others didn't, things about the case he guessed (correctly) that she hadn't revealed, Millie couldn't help but wonder. What was Hayleigh hiding?

As the kettle stopped screaming Millie frowned to herself. "Look who's a moody pessimist who's impossible to work with now?"

But as Millie poured her drink she couldn't help but think again about where DS Turner had gone that afternoon, why he hadn't returned, and did it have a connection to Hayleigh?

The doorbell rang and Millie almost dropped her mug of cocoa. It was 8pm and certainly not the time for visitors.

When she reached the front door and pulled it open to find Eleanor Roxon standing there she nearly dropped the mug again.

"Can we talk?"

"Ellie, you can't sneak out like this, it's suicide." But Millie stepped back and let the girl inside, closing the front door behind her. "What are you doing here?"

"It's about Sam and his theory on mum."

Millie heaved a sigh. "Ellie, don't listen to my wild accusations okay? I was tired and grumpy with DS Carter so I said stupid things." Millie was shocked at how easily she lied. This wasn't good. "I don't think your mum is Natovnia's ally."

"Liar. Samuel thought so too, that's why he ran away, isn't it? Why mum let him go." She drew something from her pocket. "I found this under my pillow this afternoon." She handed it to Millie and she unfolded it, reading some scribbled writing. "Witness Protection found his old mobile phone but it appears he got a new one." Mille hastily copied the phone number on the letter into an SMS then sent it through to Leon who was working the nightshift with the simple message 'TIU this'. "Why would he tell me to watch mum if he didn't think she was up to something?"

Millie refolded the letter. "Okay, honestly, I don't know if your mum's involved or not, but if she is then there's likely a very reasonable explanation like debt or a threat or something. She wouldn't put you and your brother in danger for something fickle. And does your mum look like a drug runner or a gun trafficker?"

Eleanor held up her hand as Millie offered her the letter back. "Keep it." She shrugged and looked away. "I didn't think mum had anything to do with dad's side of the family until I found an old photo. Mum, dad and uncle Craig together." Millie started to speak. "I know what you're going to say but see it first." She pulled the photo from her pocket and Millie scanned it. The three of them sat together on a bench at what seemed to be a family party. The grainy orange date stamp at the bottom indicated it was 1991. David sat on the far right side, talking to someone off camera, with Andrea in the middle, smile stuck on her face as she spoke animatedly to Craig. But there was something else in that look she gave her husband's brother. Something… not right.

"She's flirting with him." Ellie's voice broke Millie's musings and the redhead looked up quickly. "Millie, you're my friend, don't tell me I'm being stupid about this."

"No, you're right, she's flirting, but that doesn't mean they're involved with Natovnia and gun-running together. It wouldn't be the first time a woman's been intrigued by her husband's brother." She shrugged. "It might not mean anything."

"Can't you question her about all this? Make her talk about it?" Millie frowned. "Please, just ask DS Carter, see what he thinks?"

Millie couldn't help but nod. "Fine, I'll take it to DS Carter in the morning b…"

"Now."

"What?"

"Take it to DS Carter now, I'll come with." Eleanor brightened a little.

"Oh no you won't. I'm driving you home, watching you re-enter that house and then calling Beth Green to tell her she's doing an awful job watching you." Eleanor slumped. "Now let me find my keys."

* * *

Somewhere in her head Millie had imagined anywhere that Max lived probably surpassed the living standards of any mere mortal. People like Max on their golden pedestals didn't live in apartments like Millie's where the bathroom sink leaked and the heating cut out randomly. So when she got Max's address from the front office and saw he lived in a very normal block of flats with a very normal dull off-white exterior and a very normal nosey woman on the bottom level who told her flat 14 was on the fifth floor, she was quite surprised. The high-and-mighty Max Carter had a unit in a normal part of town and a very annoying neighbour. Who'd have thought it?

Reaching flat 14 Millie knocked twice on Max's wooden front door then, leaning back on the banister behind her, frowned at it. She glanced down at the letter and once again thought about leaving it till the morning. In fact, she was about to leave when his door opened. She glanced up, expecting to see him, instead coming face-to-face with Hayleigh Spark. Hayleigh grinned at the sight of her, but Millie was forced to smother a gasp. Sporting what looked very much like a men's robe, Hayleigh was leaning against the doorway like she'd been there for a while. Then Millie remembered. Hayleigh had been moved from her place earlier. So this was what Max had meant by safe house?

"Hey Mills, what's wrong?" Hayleigh gave a brilliant smile as if nothing were wrong.

Millie just looked down at the folded letter for a minute then gave a smile. "Nothing." She turned, making for the stairs, when Hayleigh spoke again.

"Mills, you okay? What are you doing here?" Millie stopped and Hayleigh continued. "Did you want to see Max? I can get him."

Millie glanced back. "No, don't worry about it, I'll talk to him in the morning." Then a brief smile Millie rushed back downstairs. As she dropped out of sight, Max appeared at the doorway.

"Was that PC Brown?"

Hayleigh nodded. "Yeah." She grinned. "Strange girl." Sliding past him, Hayleigh went back inside. Max frowned down the stairs after the PC and then, with a shake of his head, stepped back inside and shut the door.


	15. Carter

_Chapter Fifteen;  
_Carter

As Millie entered the next morning she registered Max and Hayleigh talking softly in the corner. Intrigue getting the better of her, she made an excuse to go close by making for a file on Stevie's desk. As she got there she caught only a small amount of the conversation. But it was enough to confirm all of her suspicions.

"… and that's only because afterwards you were snoring and talking in your sleep."

"I don't snore." Max protested, half-heartedly though.

Hayleigh just grinned. "Sure, and you don't talk in your sleep either. Or move around so much you were actually pulling the covers off the bed. It was like watching a dog trying to get comfortable." She did an impersonation that, under any other circumstances, would've made Millie smile. Now, however, she stood staring straight-faced at the desk.

"I hate you." He growled.

Hayleigh just laughed. "Sure, sure… that's what they all say."

Millie frowned at the desk then picked up a file and intended to make a hasty escape when Max suddenly said her name. She froze. The last thing she needed right now was to be caught listening in on a conversation she had never really wanted to hear.

"Millie," he touched her elbow and she turned with a smile. He gazed at her blankly. "Hayleigh told me you were at my place last night." She nodded. "Why?"

"Oh, I was in the area and just had a few thoughts on Sam. It's okay, I spoke to Will about them." She made to leave.

"What were your thoughts?"

Millie shook her head. "Don't worry about it." Clutching the file she rushed off.

Hayleigh stepped up beside Max who now looked thoroughly confused, watching the PC rush from the room. "Wow Max, you really have a way with her. You turn up and she rushes off." He turned his head and gave her a cold glare. Hayleigh just laughed as he walked away from her. "I'm just making an observation…"

* * *

"Who missed me?" Stuart entered the CID office with his arms held high and grinning like a fool. Stevie turned to look at him, about to reply, when her phone rang. She gave a smile and picked it up. Hayleigh gave him a smile, Millie ignored him, Max just shook his head and Will snickered. Stuart deflated quickly. "You make me sad."

"Okay, sorry, where have you been?" Will asked, giving Stuart a smile.

"I had to see someone about a lady friend of mine." Stuart explained and Millie looked up from her desk quickly. "The good news is; she's not dead."

"Who?"

"I told you, my Lady friend; my sister's dog got hit by a car."

Millie rubbed her forehead as she remembered Stuart's words… 'gotta go see a man about a dog'. She'd taken that like the saying but like everything else about Stuart, his words weren't sayings, they were always literal. "But I dropped you outside a pub sarge."

Stuart glanced back at her. "Where my sister's fiancé works. I wasn't dealing with the drama alone if Lady died. My sister would have been a mess!" He took a seat at his desk. "So what have I missed?" He looked around at them. "Millie! Tell me, Max made someone else cry overnight?"

Max looked up at the mention of his name and caught Millie's eye momentarily before she made a point of looking away. "No sarge."

"Well I am disa…"

Stevie cut him off before he could insult Max again. "Oi, good news; Goodwin just beat one of his patrons into a pulp. Kingmarsh are on their way down there now. Say we can talk to him when he's done."

"Not good news if you're that guy though, is it?" Stuart grinned. Stevie was still on the phone but she answered by raising her eyebrows mockingly. "How long til we get a go at him?" Stevie held up one finger. "An hour?" A nod was the only reply he got. "Okay." Turning sharply in his chair he pointed at Max and Hayleigh. "You two, follow up uniform's work with that break-in at yours Spark," they gave him a surprised look. "You think I didn't know? Oh, that's cute." He thumbed towards the door. "Go!" They slouched off barely saying a word and Millie lowered her head, determined not to watch them leave together. Stuart, meanwhile, had turned on Will. "Wanna go to Kingmarsh?"

Will smiled. "You know I'd love a day trip but I'm on TIU watch." He pointed to Millie. "Eleanor came to visit PC Brown last night, brought a new phone number with her, so…" He gave a brief shrug with a smile.

Stuart grinned. "And that I did not know. Ten points to you William." He smiled at looked back at his computer as Stuart rolled his computer chair towards Millie. He lost the stupid grin, turning serious again, and Millie looked up at him blankly. "How was she?"

"Driven. She makes out nothing is fazing her, that she just wants answers, but there's cracks." Stuart nodded slowly. "If we don't find Samuel soon then I think she might start doing stupid things to get her brother back."

Stuart frowned and leaned back in the ergonomic chair. "Well, we get him first then." Millie smiled. "Hey, you alright?" She nodded resolutely but avoided his eye. "You didn't jump on my chance to insult Max."

"I've run out of things to say."

Stuart laughed. "I know the feeling." He pushed off her desk and the chair rolled him away from her. "You going to Kingmarsh?" Millie nodded. "Good girl." Then, spinning back to his desk, silence fell again. Millie turned back to her computer with a frown.

* * *

It was childish but Millie couldn't help it, the inner schoolgirl had returned, along with the little green-eyed monster. Hayleigh and Max? She hadn't seen that coming but then again it all made sense. They were very alike in ways Millie had noticed from the start. Sure Hayleigh was loud and sometimes borderline annoying but there was a shared level of arrogance there at times, not that Millie meant that in a bad way, she just thought…

Millie dug the base of her palm deeper into her cheek as she stared at the computer screen in front of her, not really reading the file, just lost in her own thoughts. The room was relatively empty, save for Stevie in a far corner talking animatedly on the phone (Will and Stuart had gone in search of ice creams), so Millie had been left to achieve little in the last hour. But now words were returning to her head, little words spurned on by her schoolgirl jealousy, the mundane mood she was now in.

'There's a lot about Hayleigh Spark that few know.'

The words had come from Detective Sergeant Faison the day before; the DS adamant Hayleigh was hiding something, a lot in fact, from the Sun Hill team. Yesterday Millie had forced herself to dismiss it.

Now she was intrigued.

She picked up the phone and called him. He picked up on the third ring.

"DS Faison, it's PC Brown again. About what you wanted to tell me yesterday, about Hayleigh Spark… I'm ready to listen."


	16. Goodwin

**A/N: **Feebee: There are only three logical reasons why you would think that. 1. It's almost at the halfway point of this story and yet no one's been kidnapped, brutally murdered or blown up (which is very unlike me), 2. I'm getting predictable or 3. You're a genius. You may pick your favourite reason.

_Chapter Sixteen;  
_Goodwin

"They had to let him go." It was the first thing Stuart and Will heard as they walked back into CID.

Stuart visibly deflated. "What?"

"The guy he beat up didn't want to press charges and there were miraculously no witnesses so…" Stevie shrugged as she re-pocketed her phone. "Kingmarsh still think it would be a good idea to get down there and shake him up a bit. They sent a warning though – he's a cocky son of a gun."

Will shook his head as he headed back to his desk and Stuart glanced across at Millie who was still on the phone. "Go pay him a visit anyway. Take some uniform, remind him we're not Kingmarsh and we don't have to be good to local citizens, we just want his head on a silver platter unless he coughs up info about Bolt." He looked back at Millie and gave a sharp whistle, causing her to look up. "Going to Kingmarsh with Stevie?"

Millie nodded and hung up the phone as Max and Hayleigh walked back through the door. As Max passed Millie's desk she pushed back her chair and collected him in the leg. He jumped back a little and frowned but didn't say anything as Millie muttered a small 'sorry', still not looking up. "It's fine." Max replied, glancing back up at Stevie and Stuart who were watching the entire exchange. "Uniform haven't got any leads on the flat."

"Right, well, Stevie and Millie are off to Kingmarsh if you want to join them, go rough up some ruffians." Stuart looked very proud of his wordplay but Max just shook his head.

"I have paperwork."

Stuart's smile wavered. "Max choosing paperwork over beating submission into arrogant teens? Who are you?" He raised a solitary eyebrow but Max didn't crack under the look, just returning to his desk, and he shrugged. "Okay, Max's gone weird, Will was always weird,"

"Thanks Stuart, I love you too." Will spoke up from nearby where he sat with a phone pressed to his ear.

"… and Bolt is still missing. Life sucks." He grinned at Millie and Stevie then pointed to the door. "Go get me a bratty teenager."

...

"TIU hit on Sam's phone." Will turned his computer to show an email he'd just received. "Last night from Manchester."

Max, who had been sitting unusually quiet since Stevie and Millie had left, just frowned. "Samuel Bolt? In Manchester?" He paused. "I thought Witness Protection had his phone?"

"He got a new one." Will flipped open a folder on his desk and withdrew a piece of paper with a photo paper-clipped to it. "Eleanor dropped by to visit Millie last night. She gave her this."

Max took the letter off Will and scanned it, remembering Millie's visit to his apartment, assuming this had been the reason behind it. "'Ellie,'" he read aloud. "'I have to go and sort something out, something important, and I know you want to tell Millie and the police all about this but I hope you will give me a little time first. I'm doing this for us Peewee. Look after yourself. Watch mum. If you need me you can contact me on the number below. Please stay safe. Sam.' Watch mum? Not 'watch out for mum'."

Will nodded. "Millie spotted the exact same thing. I guess her little tirade at Beth and Andrea wasn't unwarranted after all." There was something in Will's tone that bordered a jibe and Max instinctively defended himself against it.

"I never said it was." He passed back the letter but held on to the photo. "So Andrea and Craig were friendly then?"

"Looks that way." He frowned. "Eleanor found that photo herself, but it's likely Samuel found it too, and now he's in Manchester."

"Why weren't we watching the stations for him?" Max put the photo down, ignoring how guilty he felt about Millie turning up at his place with this important news and not being met by his help, and glanced up at Will. "Didn't anyone think he'd head back home?"

"We weren't watching for Sam, we were watching for Craig." Will printed out the report and stood up, gathering it from the printer. "No one expected he'd run off too."

...

"Bryce Goodwin?" Stevie stepped through the front doorway of the Kingmarsh pub like she owned the place. Two drunks in the corner looked at her blankly as the scruffy-looking man behind the counter just pointed to a small room just behind the bar. Stevie stalked towards it, motioning for Nate and Roger to have a look around everywhere else, and Millie followed her. They found Goodwin just inside the room, a phone pressed to his ear, and he took three steps back at the sight of them. "Give me the phone Goodwin."

"Understood." Bryce flicked it shut and looked up at them. "Yes officers?"

"Phone, hand it over." Stevie held out her hand and Goodwin placed the phone in it. She flipped it open and looked down at the call log. It was empty. "Who was on the phone?" Bryce shrugged. "You'd do better to tell me rather than have me send this to TIU, waste my time and make me angry, only to find out it was Bolt and you could've just told me in the first place."

"Let me guess – I'd do good to not make you angry, right?" Goodwin's tone was cocky and he didn't seem at all deterred by their unexpected presence. In fact Millie dare say he'd predicted it.

"You would."

"I don't know who was on it, he was calling about some catering, I told him he didn't have the right number."

"Really? So it wasn't Bolt telling you to keep your mouth shut?" He frowned and Stevie glanced at Millie. "Apparently I'm speaking another language." She spoke up, slowing down her words. "Who –was – on – the – phone?"

"Like I said, wrong number. Told me I was very unhelpful. Jerk." Millie gritted her teeth at another Goodwin smart-ass comment. He was getting on her nerves but she was better at hiding that fact than Stevie was. Stevie was rather obviously annoyed.

"Was the person on the phone Bolt?"

"Who?"

Stevie glared. "You're going to tell me you have no idea who Craig Bolt is?"

"Apparently I don't."

Millie frowned at his words as Stevie scoffed. "Apparently." Her tone was dark. "Or his kids, who you went to school with?" He simply shrugged. "Of course you don't." She glanced back at Nate and Roger as they re-entered the main room. They both shook their heads. "Okay, I guess that's it then?"

Millie sighed to herself and started towards the door as Roger began flicking through a folder behind the bar nearby and Nate eyed off a sullen drunk in the corner, obviously trying to decide whether he knew him or not. Stevie was still staring down Goodwin, determined to make him crack, but the boy was cocky and arrogant and Millie knew full well she wouldn't succeed.

The small street outside the bar, a no-through road ending at an industrial site, was cracked and rundown. The gutters were broken, the drain nearby had caved in, and the whole thing just seemed to mirror everything the Ainsley Arms stood for – the place where lawless was normal and no questions were asked about criminal records or dodgy items.

The kind of place people like Millie didn't ever feel comfortable around.

She guessed that was why she felt like she was being watched, why she turned her head three times before she frowned, questioning what was left of her sanity. The wind was picking up off a river nearby, there was a lonely dog close, these 'heebie-jeebies' were all her imagination. She crossed her arms and waited patiently outside the bar for the others, turning back to the door as she heard a noise, hoping Roger was stepping out holding aloft something he'd found.

Then she heard a footstep behind her and turned quickly.

The last thing Millie saw before the world turned dark was the grinning face of Craig Bolt.


	17. Chris

**A/N: **I'm going for the old 'one chapter every season' system. See you in the summer! lol

_Chapter Seventeen;  
_Chris

"Millie?" Millie lifted her head slowly, the pain getting the better of her, before she dropped it again. Roger caught her before she could knock herself out on the pavement. "Okay, don't lift your head again." He chuckled as he said it and Millie almost managed a smile.

"Bloody Bolt." She groaned, rarely resorting to swearing, but her head hurt so much the situation called for it. "He hit me with a piece of that fence." She motioned to what she was sure was the direction of the vacant lot across the road from the pub.

"Craig?" Stevie's voice broke into Millie's ear and finally she opened her eyes. Stevie, Roger and Nate were around her, Roger crouching beside her as Stevie and Nate stood near her right hip. Stevie was looking around her, almost as if she were hoping to suddenly see Craig Bolt watching them, chuckling like a madman and stroking his ridiculously large moustache likely. Millie managed to smile to herself. No more Looney Tunes cartoons.

"Yeah. He came up behind me." She sat up slowly but Roger kept his hand on her back, just to be safe, and she rubbed her eyes. "But I saw him clear as day. It was Bolt."

"Okay, Nate, get her up. We're done here. Goodwin's not going to crack and we have no reason to arrest him… yet." There was something in the last word that made Millie glance up at Stevie quickly. Stevie wasn't going to let this go, it wasn't her style, and Goodwin had done the wrong thing by trying to outwit Stevie Moss. He'd made himself a powerful enemy. "Let's get back to the station." She smiled at Millie as Nate and Roger helped her back to her feet. "Roger, Nate, you want to stay here a bit longer and have a sniff around?"

Roger nodded. "That building yard over there is far too quiet for a weekday." He motioned to the yard across the road. The front gates were open but no one seemed to be working in there. "I know they say builders are lazy but that's a new level of."

Stevie chuckled. "Have you seen this place?" She shook her head a little. "It doesn't exactly scream 'fast-growing suburb of London' does it?" But she nodded and, helping Millie back to the car, left Nate and Roger to do their own thing. As Stevie and Millie drove off Roger glanced over at Nate. "Okay, let's go meet the only people lazier than you."

Nate sighed. "Got halfway through a day without you insulting me. I thought we were going to set a record." He followed Roger into the building site.

* * *

Neil stood waiting for them just outside of CID and Stevie chuckled softly. "Watch out, he's got that 'oh no you don't, and don't you dare question me' face on. Someone's about to get a spiel."

"Still better than a Max Carter insult." Millie returned, getting some of her old fight back now the stabbing pain in her head had softened to a dull thudding. She hadn't discovered until she went to touch her head that it was actually bleeding but now the warm stickiness of it in her hair was starting to annoy her. If Neil told her to go home she'd gladly oblige… but she'd be back before the day was out.

"PC Brown." Millie gave Neil a half-assed smile as he shook his head at her. "What are you doing here? You should be at St. Hugh's."

Millie shook her head. "I'm fine guv, really, I just want to get back to work."

But, as usual, Neil wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. "Get to St. Hugh's now." Stevie stepped forward to take her but Neil shook his head. "You have a call from Kingmarsh." He took the keys from Stevie's hands as she held them up and glanced past Millie. There was no one else in the hall. "I'll take you myself."

"Guv, it's okay, I'll get someone from uniform to take me. Really."

Before Neil could say anything however, Max appeared on the stairs, reading a sheet of paper, a cup of tea or coffee steaming in his other hand. He walked without looking up until Neil said his name, a haughty expression etched to his face before he seemed to notice Millie (the blood still on her hand though she'd attempted to wipe it off on her pants) and frowned. "Yes guv?"

"Take Millie to St. Hugh's." He tossed Max the keys, which Max didn't catch the first time and ended up having to regather from the ground, then turned and walked back into CID.

Max glanced at Millie. "What happened?"

Millie just shook her head. "Nothing, let's go." They managed to get out of CID, into the car and even halfway out the lot before Max spoke again. Millie frowned and looked out the window as he asked if she was okay. "Been better."

Max glanced sideways at her. "What's wrong with you today?"

Millie frowned. "Give me a break sarge, I just got clobbered with a fence paling."

"I meant before that. You were at my apartment last night then just disappeared and this morning you were avoiding me."

"Didn't realise you even noticed." Millie muttered softly.

"I wouldn't be a very good detective if I didn't." Max glanced across at her and Millie thought for a second there was a mocking smile on the corners of his lips. But then, in a flash, it was gone and he just looked bored. "So?"

"Nothing." She paused then looked at him from the corner of her eye. "In all due respects sarge, you made it clear from the start you didn't like my inclusion in the investigation team. Well, now I'm avoiding you, everyone wins." She shrugged. "I just want to catch Bolt and find Samuel, that's all."

"I'm not questioning your work ethic PC Brown…"

Millie cut him off. "Then there's nothing to talk about." She turned back to the window and Max frowned but he let it go. They were silent the rest of the way to St. Hugh's.

* * *

"What a man eh? Prostitutes and drugs and now hitting female police officers with a plank of wood?" Nate scoffed as they trudged through a vacant lot beyond the main gates of the work site. Here the ground thick with mud and precarious piles of wood (complete with nails pointing up) provided a twisted kind of obstacle course for the two uniformed officers to work through. Roger was striding through it steadily, his walk determined and his eyes straight forward, while Nate loped behind him like an oversized Golden Retriever, nowhere near as graceful. Roger just shrugged wordlessly. "Well, it's a bit scummy. I mean; to go for Millie. If he wanted to make a point he could've gone for anyone."

Roger paused. "That's just the thing though Nate – Bolt doesn't respect women. To him hitting a woman in uniform was probably some kind of twisted fun. Bring her down a peg or two. Back down to the women he usually deals with."

"Or he just figured that a female officer was a worthy replacement for hitting DC Spark with a plank of wood."

Roger gave a light laugh. "You know, you might be on to something there Nate. Who'd have thought this…" He paused as something caught his eye. A movement in the distance. He pointed towards some piles of stone to their left. "There's someone in there."

"What? The quarry?" Nate followed Roger's finger just as there came another movement. He almost stepped back. "You're right." He motioned to the far right of the small quarry site. "Go around." Roger nodded as Nate started towards the quarry. As they split up though something sounded. A crack, like a gunshot, and Nate instinctively hit the ground, barely missing a plank of wood with a nail up. He grabbed his radio. "Sierra Oscar 1 from 876. Shots fired. Patterson Road industrial site Kingmarsh. Assistance required." The radio crackle rattled back a reply as Nate lifted his head slowly to look for Roger. The older PC had gone. "275 from 876. Where are you Roge?"

Roger's voice came back clearly. "I'm fine Nate, but I've lost sight of our suspect. You okay?"

Nate sat up slowly, glancing at the spiked wood beside him. "Close call, and I don't mean the gunshot. You think it…" He frowned as he moved the piece of wood beside him, blocking what he could now see was a shallow ditch in the mud. "Roger, you better get back here." He paused, lowered his radio, and then picked it up again. "876 to Sierra Oscar 1." He waited for the response and when it came through he quickly continued. "Get in contact with Kingmarsh and tell them to get Crime Scene down here. We have a body."


	18. Andrews

**Disclaimer: **I do not own thee. Thee belongs to the TV show archives now...

**Credit to: **ankaz123, my BETA and 'why, this chapter could have some Mallie interactions here, here and here' mentor. If updates keep coming you can thank her - she has a large whip and I'm genuinely scared for my life...

_Chapter Eighteen;  
_Andrews

As soon as Max and Millie arrived at the hospital he ushered her gently towards the nurses counter, Millie worried he'd do something 'typically Max' like demand she get looked at straightaway, but instead he was surprisingly polite to the nurse on duty. "Hey," the younger girl looked up with a smile. "PC Brown here just got collected with a fence paling. It's not the best morning for it, we're quite swamped, so if you could pull a few strings and get her out of here as quickly as possible, I'd really appreciate it."

The nurse nodded. "Of course." Reaching behind her she grabbed a small light and a pad of gauze. She handed the gauze to Millie and she pressed it to the back of her head to step the bleeding as the nurse scanned her eyes across the counter. She smiled. "Focus is fine but to be safe we'll do a scan. Can you wait fifteen minutes? There's a patient in there already, but you'll be next."

Millie stepped in before Max could say anything. "Yes, that's fine, thank you." She started back to the chairs and Max followed, hands shoved in his pockets, that natural slump in his posture as he sat down next to her and stared at the wall. Millie glanced at him. "You don't have to wait."

Max looked up. "It's fine." He went back to the wall but Millie sensed there was some other reason for his waiting. She knew he was right when the two people at the nurse's counter moved to sit and the counter was free again. He stood. "Stay there." Millie scowled at being told to 'sit and stay' like a dog but she didn't say anything, just watching him as he headed to the counter again with that alligator smile etched to his features. "Hey again." The girl gave another smile. "Look, I'm investigating a man named Nikolai Brecht who's been in here a few times. You've been really helpful to my friend and I was wondering if I could push that kindness a little more."

She smiled warmly and typed the name into the computer. She looked back at Max as it came up. "Would you like to see the patient's file Detective…"

He whipped out his badge. "DS Carter, and yes, that would be great."

"That would also be a breach of 'patient privacy', Detective Sergeant." The girl smiled, playing Max's game as well as he could, and Max nodded slowly. He glanced back at Millie who, pretending she hadn't been watching Max flirting, glanced down at her nails.

Max looked back at the nurse stood to put away a file. "Could I talk to a nurse who has treated him then?" The nurse gave him a blank look. "Just to see what they thought of him."

"I treated him, when he was in here not long ago," she tapped the computer screen. "I'd show you but, well, I can't." She gave a soft shrug and sat down again. Max didn't move and eventually she looked up. "What's he done?" There was a hint of intrigue to her tone and Max forced back a smile knowing he was getting somewhere now.

"Plenty. Drugs, underage prostitutes, deaths. A young man is missing, connected to his group of allies, and we're worried he may not come home. His little sister is frantic."

The girl bit her lip gently. "My older brother and I don't talk much." She gave a soft sigh then leaned forward. "Look, I can't show you the files, but I was on afternoon duty a few months ago when your Nikolai Brecht was in here. He had an appendix removed. Real charmer really. The nurses liked him." She paused. "He had a private room, wing D," she pointed to her left down a corridor nearby. "Paid for it with cash. I mean, that's not rare, we get that a lot actually, especially old people, don't trust the NHS."

"But he stood out?" She nodded. "Why?" Max pushed.

"My superior told me he'd requested no one come near him without his prior say-so, all visitors had to be pre-approved, not just by us but by him. And he wanted their bags searched." She frowned. "I think he was a bit paranoid, mentioned someone might come get him when he was down, but he only got one visitor the whole time, a woman, if I remember right."

"Who was she?"

This time the nurse glanced at the computer, scrolling through the file a bit, and though Max tried to look she turned it away from his sight with a smile. She stopped and glanced up. "Roxie Andrews."

Max frowned for a moment and then he got it. "Did she have ID in that name?" The nurse nodded one last time. "Thanks for your help," he glanced at her name badge, "Karen." She smiled warmly at him as he turned and walked back to Millie. As he sat back down she glanced up at him again, frowning at the look on his face before he looked up at her, meeting her eye. "A few months ago Nikolai Brecht was in here and he had a visitor. Roxie Andrews." Millie got it straightaway; Max saw it in her expression. "Two guesses who that is – you won't need the second one."

...

Will frowned at the last of the report, the one he'd been left to finish up alone in CID, before hitting print calmly. As the printer whirred to life Will's desk phone started to ring and he picked it up quickly.

"TDC Fletcher."

Will's voice was a little muffled as he answered the phone with a pen in his mouth and the woman on the other end was quiet for a second. "Is this Will Fletcher?"

Will opened his mouth and the pen dropped out. "Yeah, sorry, it is."

"Natalie from TIU." Will nodded, picking up the pen to write down whatever she was about to say. "In regards to the Samuel Bolt SIM." Will murmured a 'yes'. "The phone is back on. His last call was from Teasedon Road, Canley."

Will grinned. "Great."

"A message was sent too. Do you want to know what it says?" The woman sounded a little put out and Will decided to play it safe and be nice.

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks."

"It was to the registered phone of a Ryan Trent. It says 'dear pigs, come find me, Teasedon Rd, I'll be waiting on the canal road'."

Will's brow furrowed. "What?"

...

"I love searching for clues in mud," Nate muttered, shaking a large clump of wet clay off his hands as he tried to keep hold on the metal bar he'd picked up. He shook it a bit to clear its mud too but nothing stood out so he let it fall back to the ground. "Unless the murder weapon is something obvious, like a bright pink umbrella, we're never going to find it here." Nate and Roger weren't the only ones searching for a weapon, Crime Scene had been at the yard for about 35 minutes and quickly determined they were after a blunt object, and now a good 20 officers were combing the mud. But, by Nate's whinging, you couldn't guess that he wasn't standing alone in the rain like a discarded puppy. Roger glanced up from his own mud pile. "I mean, come on – it could be anything here and after the rain and in this mud, I'm pretty sure blood splatter will be long gone."

Roger just smiled. "I've always loved your optimism PC Roberts. It really brightens my day." Nate gave a light chuckle. "You're probably right but it's the job Nate, squelching through mud, finding nothing." Roger pushed aside a large pile of chicken wire. "I'll tell you what though – first person to find something worth noting gets shouted three rounds ton…"

Before he could even finish the sentence Nate gave a happy yell. "Phone!" He fished it out of the mud and wiped it off on his shirt, rubbing it a few times before he tried to turn it on, growling as nothing happened. "Looks like this is Tech work now."

Roger smiled. "There's that pessimism again. Give me your phone." Nate frowned. "Well do I look like someone who has one?" Nate handed over his own phone as Roger took the muddy one as well. Opening up both phones, pocketing the broken phone's pieces and whipping off his gloves, he handed Nate his SIM card and placed the muddy phone's one inside. Then, putting the phone back together expertly he turned the phone back on. It took a minute and then an 'Orange UK' logo sprung up and the phone whirred to life. He handed Nate the phone. "He of little faith."

Nate laughed. "Not bad for an old man." Roger just smiled as he drew out an evidence bag and put the muddy phone inside. Nate continued playing with the phone for a bit before he stopped. "Check out the last text message." He held up the phone for Roger to read. "Unknown number."

Roger read it out softly. "I think that's an invitation I can't pass up." He picked up his radio. "Sierra Oscar 1 from 275. We're following a lead back to the canal path off Teasedon Rd." There came a quick 'okay' then Roger looked at Nate. "Let's go join the party."


	19. Samuel

_Chapter Nineteen;  
_Samuel

"You were right," Max said finally. It had been almost twenty minutes since he'd returned from the nurse's desk and after realizing they both knew full well what the other was thinking, they'd lapsed into silence. Millie's eyes snapped up his, not just because it was the first words he'd said in ages, but because of what he said. She frowned lightly. "I should have pushed harder to follow it up."

Millie had realized a while ago, back when she'd first worked with DS Carter, that he was very hard on himself. She shrugged. "We know now. And to be fair sarge, you were the only one who listened to me when I said it, everyone else looked at me like I was mad."

"Yes, well, you're pretty good at reading people so…" the comment was off the cuff and he muttered it, but Millie heard it, and she hid a soft smile, knowing this conversation and the pain in her head meant she shouldn't be grinning in any way. He glanced back at the nurse's desk. "Didn't she say fifteen minutes?"

"You don't have to stay sarge, I'm alright."

He shook his head. "I told you I would." He pushed himself to his feet and started to the desk but before he managed even three steps his phone rang. Karen behind the desk looked up and frowned at him and Max had the decency to look sheepish as he fished out his phone. He frowned at it, glancing at Millie as he started to the front of the hospital, leaning against the wall just outside the main doorway as he answered. "Will?"

"Samuel Bolt's phone came back on."

Max frowned. "When?"

"Half an hour ago. It's still on, we're trying to triangulate the location, currently it tells us he's somewhere in Sun Hill." He paused for a moment. "He sent a text message to Ryan Trent, Craig Bolt's boat driver, the scruffy young man we arrested on June 1st." Max gave a soft 'mhm', only just remembering the kid. "Well Crime Scene just contacted us from a site in Kingmarsh – they just identified Ryan Trent's body in the mud."

Max frowned. So much had happened since he came to St. Hugh's and he hated that he was only hearing this now. He felt cut off from the action and he didn't like it that way. "Where in Kingmarsh? I'm coming back in. Tell DC Spark to meet me out the front of the station."

Will gave Max the location and agreed to get Hayleigh moving before Max hung up and went back into the station. He paused in front of Millie and she looked up. "Sam?" Max shook his head. "Then what?"

"Ryan Trent's body was found and Samuel Bolt's back in Sun Hill. I've got to go back in. Are you going to be okay?"

Millie chuckled softly. "I'm fine sarge." She glanced up at him, seeing the same face he'd made in the car, a look like he had indigestion. Her smile fell. "You don't have to babysit me." She held his gaze and this time Max looked away, shaking his head.

"I'm not babysitting you. I know how head injuries are, I just want to make sure you're okay." He shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced at the nurse's desk again. No sign of anyone moving towards Millie.

Her anger ebbed and she turned her eyes down. "Sarge. Go." She smiled and finally Max nodded and started to the door, hands still shoved in his pockets, as Millie mentally chastised her warm cheeks. After a moment she picked up one of the many awful magazines on the waiting table beside her and then, settling in for the usual waiting game, started to read.

...

The Teasdon Rd canal path was quiet, being mid-afternoon, and the police car didn't pass anyone as they started down it. Halfway down Roger pulled up and came to a stop, stepping out, and Nate followed.

"So what do you think we're searching for?" Nate asked, looking around him, pulling on some blue latex gloves instinctively. He kept his asp nearby too, just in case. "Obviously Bolt couldn't have got here from Kingmarsh in less than an hour."

"If a game of chase is all he wants then I overestimated him. I thought he was smarter than that." Roger scanned the ground just off the main path. There was a small ditch at the edge of the road before it started to slope up away from them, the area beyond covered in trees. "If there's clues here about the Kingmarsh body then they're going to take ages to find." He looked at Nate. "Come on, let's get started."

But, five minutes later, they found what they were looking for and it wasn't hard to miss. About 20 metres up from where they'd parked, dumped in the ditch and covered by a dark blue tarpaulin sheet, was a body. Bloody, the hair matted, and… to Nate's rather obvious horror (he backed away as Roger donned his gloves and lifted the body to see its face), his face had been beaten to a virtually unrecognizable state. "Jesus…" Roger just breathed. Nate had turned away, looking into the canal, as Roger put the body down slowly and covered it again. "Call Eddie. Tell him w…" but Roger was cut off by a tinny beat coming from nearby. Nate frowned as he looked back at Roger and slowly they started towards the source of the sound. They found it behind a tree a few steps off the path – a dark blue Nokia. With a quick glance at Nate Roger grabbed the phone from the grass and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hello? Who's this?" Roger realised it was a young girl's voice and frowned at Nate.

"This is PC Valentine from Sun Hill."

The girl gasped. "What? What's happened? Is Sam okay?"

"Sam? Sorry, whose phone is this?"

"My brother Samuel. Samuel Bolt." Roger frowned. "What's happened to him? Is he alright?" Roger's eyes fell to Samuel Bolt's body as he told Eleanor to wait. He grabbed his radio.

"I'm going to need CID down here. Someone from the Bolt investigation. We've found a body on the canal path off Teasedon Rd. We suspect its Samuel Bolt."


	20. Eleanor

**A/N:** Because I'm now scared that my idea of one staff member working at a busy hospital is me being hopeful. Hopeful! Hopeful? I'm NEVER getting sick in England. If it happens I'm hopping the next flight to Sydney and waiting until I get home to get treatment. lol

_Chapter Twenty;  
_Eleanor

Hayleigh felt bad that she was happy about finally being out of the station again, as she walked alongside DS Carter she couldn't help but feel a lot less useless, something she'd been feeling a lot lately. The break-in, she was still looking into that, but it had left her shaken. Add onto that the shooting, Arthur Faison, it was piling up on her like a stack of bricks. She was thankful for the solace that had readily become Sun Hill but she liked the fresh air too and needed to get away from investigating her own things being rifled through by unknown hands (or as she was starting to quietly suspect – known hands) even if that meant being here for what she knew would be an ugly find.

"Eddie?" Max spoke as the heavy-set man leaned over a body. The figure was clearly that of a young man but the face was unrecognizable. Eddie had opened his mouth and was assessing inside. He glanced up with his tiny flashlight still pinched between two bloody fingers as he heard Max's voice. "Well?"

"Clear signs of tooth damage, as Ms. Roxon stated, a filling that's roughly three years old. Preliminary report I'd say it's about a 75% chance it's Samuel Bolt." He stood, shaking his head a little. "No chance of facial ID but it seems he was dead before they did the damage. There's not a great deal of bleeding from the facial damage. I'd say he was dead maybe an hour before they did this." He motioned to the neck. "Tracheal damage suggests he was strangled. There aren't any burns so with hands I'd say."

"Strangled then beaten?" Hayleigh said in a strangled voice of her own. She was looking at a body that was 75% that of her once-nephew and it was getting to her. The bodies were piling up… just the way Craig liked it. To him death had only ever been a formality. He'd made a point of stating he wasn't scared of it from the day they met, chiding Hayleigh's love of the supernatural, ghosts and the afterlife all a joke to him. Death was just another business deal to men like Craig Bolt. A tool in an already scary and impressive arsenal.

Eddie nodded. "Seems that way." Eddie's normally flamboyant style was lost. Even he knew what tactless meant and he toned the attitude down. "Roger is talking to the sister." He motioned behind him where Roger stood with his ear pressed to a phone. "I've already sent samples of the body's DNA to the lab. We'll have full results in 40 minutes but we'll still need the family's ID of the body."

Hayleigh's face scrunched up. "You think David and Andrea should see this?"

Eddie shook his head. "The body, not the face. There's a few marks on the body, legs and arms, that seem to have been there a while. A birthmark too. We'll need their ID on that." He looked at Max. "They've already headed to the hospital. Apparently the mother hasn't handled it well."

Max's eyes narrowed. "You told them it was him when you're not sure?"

"The sister called and assumed. Roger's been trying to get her to calm down for the last 25 minutes." Eddie shrugged. "I don't think it's working."

Max nodded. "Okay," he momentarily thought about an answer to that when he remembered something. "Ryan Trent? We were on the way to Kingmarsh when PC Roberts called and told me to come here. What of him?"

Eddie shrugged. "I'm not sure, that's Kingmarsh's area, you'll have to contact them." He picked up his stuff and motioned to two men standing nearby, waiting to take the body to the morgue.

"Ok, thanks Eddie." Max muttered as the larger Crime Scene man walked off. He motioned to Roger as he looked at Hayleigh. "Tell Roger I'm sending Millie to meet up with the Roxons, that Eleanor should meet her at the Main Entrance." Hayleigh nodded and wandered off as Max pulled out his phone. Millie answered on the third ring. "Hey, where are you?" He said before she could even manage a proper hello.

There was the distinct sound of wind in the background as Millie replied. "I'm heading to the cab rank sarge. I just got the all-clear."

"Good," Max replied, with pure honestly, glad though he had no idea why, that Millie was okay. "But if you don't mind going in – the Roxons are in there. A body was just found on the Teasdon Road. It's Samuel Bolt."

Millie choked back a sob, it was obvious, and drew a breath. "Okay, where are they?"

"I'm getting DC Spark to get Eleanor up to the Main Entrance now, so if you can wait for her there, I won't be long." Millie was quiet for a moment and Max gave a light frown. "PC Brown?"

"Oh, sorry sarge. Just, will DC Spark be with you?"

Max frowned a little harder. "No, why?"

"Nothing, just… nothing, don't worry about it." But Millie's response was so strange Max couldn't help but do so. He had noticed Millie's avoidance of DC Spark lately but then again she'd been avoiding him too and he just thought it was her mood. Now it seemed it was something else. He didn't push it though as Millie continued. "Alright, I'm heading back in now sarge. See you soon."

Max nodded and flicked the phone shut, pocketing it as he glanced over at DC Spark, the phone Roger had been holding now pressed to her ear as she spoke to Eleanor Roxon. With a light frown still on his face Max started back to his car.

…

"Millie!" PC Brown turned quickly at the voice and saw the smaller, familiar figure of Eleanor Roxon walking towards her. She smiled sadly as the girl jogged up and threw her arms around Millie, sobbed unabashedly into the PC's shoulder as Millie stroked the girl's hair, cooing softly.

"Hey, it's going to be okay." She just stood there as the girl sobbed, rubbing her head gently, waiting for a break in the crying. One showed itself finally and Millie took her chance. "Come on, come sit down, we need to talk." Ellie nodded and allowed Millie to lead her to two soft chairs nearby. She sank down into one with a light sigh and Millie sat on the edge of one looking at Eleanor. "Ellie, tell me the truth okay – did you know Samuel was back in London?" Ellie's eyes rose quickly and something in them gave away that she had. "TIU traced his phone to Manchester just last night and then it went offline again. Today he's in London and we have no idea how he bridged the gap so quickly or why." Eleanor's eyes returned to the ground. "Do you think you can tell me why Ellie?"

She gave a light nod. "He was meeting someone."

"He called you?"

Ellie shook her head. "He left a note." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a sticky yellow post-it note. On it in scribbled writing was 'I'm back, I have a meeting, all resolved soon'. "It was on my window this morning."

"Do you have any idea who he was meeting?" Ellie shook her head. "When and where?" Another shake. "Why?" This time she stayed still and silent. "Ellie? Do you know why he was meeting someone?" Still nothing. "Is this to do with your mum?" Ellie looked up again but before she could talk a figure started towards them and Millie looked up at DS Carter. She touched Ellie's leg gently. "I'll be right back okay?" Then, standing, she followed Max a few steps away from Eleanor. "Sam had a meeting with someone." She glanced back at Eleanor. "Something to do with Andrea I think. Eleanor won't confirm it," she looked back at Max with a soft frown. "I think she's worried Andrea had something to do with this."

"That Andrea had Samuel killed?" Max mused on that for a moment. "That's pretty drastic – her own son."

"I wouldn't put it past her. Something about her is just so… wrong." Millie admitted.

Max nodded. "Okay," he looked at Eleanor. "I know her mother's been against it from a start but we need Eleanor to come make a statement about everything. Her thoughts on her mother as well. Hearsay is enough to get a warrant these days if you string it right." He touched Millie's back, ushering her gently back to Eleanor's side, but Millie was so focused on her work she paid the movement no heed.

Returning to her seat Millie smiled. "Ellie, we need you to come down the station today, make a statement on everything." Eleanor's eyes shot up again but this time she just looked terrified. "I know you're scared, I know you just want to run, I get that, we've all been there. But Sam needs you right now, needs you to help solve who did this to him, and surely that matters more than anything?"

She shook her head. "I can't do it." Her hands shook and her feet bounced. Millie knew what 'fight or flight' looked like. Eleanor was overwhelmed, heartbroken over her brother's death, and felt very alone. Millie suddenly hated herself for pushing her even just this little bit. "I'm sorry PC Brown." Then, as Millie knew she would, she stood and dashed off. Millie stood slowly with a sigh just as Max walked up to join her.

"Don't worry about it, we'll still get Bolt's killer."

Millie frowned at him. "I wasn't worried about the case." She snapped before walking after the girl. Max just watched her go with a frown.


	21. Trent

_Chapter Twenty-One;  
_Trent

Maybe it was copper's intuition, or the feeling of guilt in his stomach that Millie had stormed away from him for putting his foot in his mouth again, but Max felt he was missing something. Millie's words from the phone call a bit earlier played in his mind as he started back to Sun Hill. 'Oh, sorry sarge. Just, will DC Spark be with you?'. There was something so odd about not just the words but the tone. He analysed it properly in his head now and heard not just distrust in Millie's voice but something else. She sounded, could he even say it; afraid of Hayleigh? It sounded so stupid in his head but he couldn't help but feel that was what was in her tone. Not terrified, not even afraid was the right word, just wary. Maybe wary was it.

But why?

Just a few days earlier they'd been getting along so well. Something had changed since Millie had turned up at Max's door and he was arrogant but not enough to simply pass it off as Millie reading too much into a situation, a crush gone too far. It had taken a bit to convince Max that Millie's prowess as an officer was that she had a lot more going on below the surface than anyone saw, and now he knew that he didn't doubt her abilities, he just wished he didn't feel so out of the loop.

When he arrived back at the station, starting up the stairs to CID, he was waylaid by a voice. He turned when he spotted Stevie hurrying up behind him. She handed him the pieces of paper she was holding without a word and he glanced down at them with a soft sigh. "Trent was killed the same way as Bolt."

"So, it was him?" Stevie asked, her voice always going a tad softer when she was afraid to voice something.

Max nodded. "Parents identified the markings and it was confirmed off his dental." Her head hung a little. "His time of death was about midday." He glanced at Trent's report. "Trent's was just after 11." He frowned. "Either Bolt's been a busy boy today or we have two different culprits." Max handed back the report. "Either way, they were found because Bolt wanted us to find them."

As he started into the CID room Stevie followed. "How are the family?"

Max shrugged. "I didn't stick around to find out. Millie was with them," of course he hadn't seen Millie after she'd gone after Eleanor but he knew enough about the PC to know she avoided conflict whenever she could. She likely came in through another entrance with the teenager. He didn't think about checking on the parents either. After the 'Roxy Andrews' business he didn't feel like facing Andrea. "Roger's taking them home when it's done." He didn't stop at his own desk, moving to the desk PC Brown worked on now, sitting down in her chair he glanced at her piles of notes. They were neatly ordered as he expected. His piles were a mess. "Go tell the guv weren't going to need a debrief about this. Everyone," he glanced back at Stevie. "Okay?"

Nodding, seemingly about to ask him what he was searching for but stopped when Max spoke again, she just put the report down on her desk and started towards DI Manson's office as Max started going through Millie's notes. When he found nothing significant his eyes moved to her computer, nothing there either, and then he noticed the notepad. His fingers brushed over the top sheet and he felt the indents. Grabbing the notepad he moved to try and reveal the words when the door of CID opened again and Hayleigh walked in. She gave him a brief smile but the uneasiness Millie had instilled settled in the pit of Max's stomach and stopped him even trying to return one. He just gave her a nod then, taking the notepad, he walked briskly from the room.

...

Andrea finally stopped crying as they reached home. David had been silent the whole way back and Nate kept glancing back at them, making sure they were okay. He couldn't help it – he was genuinely worried that with Andrea's fragile state she was going to do something stupid. She'd already claimed that without Samuel she was nothing, seemingly undeterred by David's mention of staying strong for Eleanor, who failed to show up for the ID (not that Nate or Roger blamed her). Nate was hesitant about taking her home and leaving her there with only David to watch her but Samuel's father was sure he'd do okay so they'd taken the couple back to their Witness Protection flat and ushered them upstairs. Under the watchful eye of two suited WP detectives Roger took David's door keys and opened the door, frowning as his eyes fell quickly to the piece of paper, laying words-side down in the hallway, evidently pushed through the letterbox. Worried it might be someone, namely Craig Bolt, taunting Andrea and David, he picked it up while pretending he'd dropped the keys and pocketed it. Andrea and David didn't notice, heading inside, David mentioning tea. Roger shook his head at the offer. "We have to get back but, thank you." He held out his card. "If you need anything." David gave a light smile as he took the card and held the door open for them. Once they were outside and the door shut behind them Roger pulled out the note.

"Is this why you were out of there like a bat out of hell?" Nate commented, craning his neck to read the letter.

Roger nodded. "Pushed through the letterbox." He unfolded it and straightened it out between his palms. "'Mr Mrs Bolt. I have understanding. They got my sister. I will get them.'" Roger read aloud. Nate frowned deeply. "That doesn't sound like Bolt."

"That sounds more like someone who doesn't speak English as a first language." He motioned to the letter. "And has a common enemy with Andrea and David."

Roger slipped the note into an evidence bag. "Not just that but they seemed to understand. They know about Samuel?" He glanced back at the flat. "Let's get this back to the station. I can't make heads or tails of this on my own."

"It's not like you not to try though?" Nate teased.

Roger just wiped a hand over his eyes. "It's been a long week."


	22. Bolt

**Disclaimer: **Kate is busy out trying to find The Bill in one of iTVs 'rejected' piles. Please leave a message after the… BEEP!

_Chapter Twenty-Two;  
_Bolt

Superintendant Heaton crossed his arms. "Alright, so, for those of us who haven't seen this right through, what's the story so far?"

The meeting had started and though Neil had requested everyone involved join them the room was only half full. Roger and Nate were following up the Trent murder, tracking family, after they'd returned with a note left on the door of the Roxon residence. The note had confused most of the team but since no one had an answer it was left to work out later. Stevie was at Kingmarsh helping find 'Chris' Bolt and Millie hadn't been seen since the hospital. So the others gathered with Inspector Weston and Superintendant Heaton to start from square one again.

Stuart nodded and motioned to the whiteboard beside him. "On the 29th of May, following up some witness statements on a burglary on the High Street, I came across an old informant of mine. Apparently he'd just fallen out of favour with a 'colleague' and wanted revenge. The best way to do this was to sell him out to me. He said that on Monday June 1st Craig Bolt would be bringing in a cruiser-load of illegal, underage girls to work in his joint on Maydell Rd. His words proved fruitless, but we think that was less to do with his information and more on the fact Bolt was tipped off. Nonetheless, Craig was arrested for drugs charges, his fingerprints found on 1 1-kilo bag of cocaine and a statement from his niece that they belonged to him. However, we believe there may be more than 1-kilo to that collection. But then, as you know, Bolt skipped bail. He scarpered. To find him we tracked his associates, which led us to Archibald Natovnia, Croatian gun runner with a violent past. In turn we came to Samuel Bolt, Craig's nephew and our body. Samuel was suspected of running for his uncle, and then for Natovnia. In actuality Samuel was tracking Natovnia to gather evidence against him and try and make him drop a $20,000 debt owed by Samuel's father David Bolt. Like all good debt collectors, Natovnia's interest kept rising."

"What do we know about Natovnia?"

Hayleigh stood and went to the whiteboard, tapping his picture. "Natovnia has been the target of my investigation since 2002. In May 2002 he was spotted with Craig in Blackpool doing some early business. Nothing changed hands but their affiliation started. Not long after that Craig returned to Manchester and DI Wilkins set up the squad to bust Craig, the team that put me undercover." The rest of the team listened intently. Hayleigh hadn't shared much of this before now, finding it likely wasn't relevant to the case. Only one person knew the whole story and she wasn't in the room. As he listened in to Hayleigh, Max checked his phone again. Still nothing. After finding the notepad and getting the very cryptic two sentences off it Max had texted Millie to ask what it meant. He was yet to get a reply. "We don't know a lot about Natovnia, he keeps himself to himself, but we can gather a few things. He contracts out his runners and hit men, this way he can stay only indirectly connected to whatever he orders. He loans money out in large amounts, with even larger amounts of interest, because the interest helps keep his gun business afloat. We've suspected his arms dealer is based somewhere in Turkey but no luck proving that, only hearsay. As far as we can tell he has little to do with drugs, but if he's doing business with Craig then obviously he's come into contact with them somewhere."

"Bolt's drug man?"

Stuart spoke up again. "Nikolai Brecht, best known as Nikolai Kowalski, his mother's maiden name. Kowalski is part owner in a tour company. We thought his business may be a front for something else but a property search the day after the obbo at the docks came up empty-handed. Same with his home. Wherever he's hiding these drugs, it isn't near him."

"So the big three then? Guns, drugs and girls?"

Stuart nodded and tapped the pictures of Natovnia, Brecht and Bolt in turn. "Guns, drugs and girls. And the one common denominator," he stopped on the picture of Benjamin Holman. "His nightclub, the Harley Club."

"But he denies knowing anything is going on?"

"Yeah, he does. He says these three have been meeting there since he acquired the club from his brother eight months ago. Says he couldn't exactly kick them out. A likely story."

"You think he's connected?"

"I think he's too dumb to be connected, but he's certainly in this deeper than I think even he wants to be. But we scoured the nightclub too and there's nothing in his financial records, hidden cupboards, hell, he doesn't even have the usual nightclub business of dodgy alcohol suppliers and wife-beating heavies."

"That's it?"

Hayleigh shrugged. "After two weeks I was hoping for more too guv but we just keep missing something. Something big. Craig is always 10 steps ahead of us. We found Bolt and Trent because he wanted us to."

"What about what Samuel said?" Max spoke up. Eyes turned on him slowly. "He mentioned something in his interview on," Max frowned and tried to remember. "The 11th, the night of the Harley Club raid." He looked across at Hayleigh. This had come up earlier, Max and Hayleigh having spoken about it after the break-in at her place, and they were sure they had a name to go with the accusation. "He stated Natovnia knew someone in the police. We never put it in the Witness Protection files, just in case, but it was the real reason he went into protection."

Neil nodded and glanced at Superintendant Heaton. "I have the original recording. It was never filed away in the system but I do have the interview." Heaton nodded, understanding the fine line that officers had to walk in these situations, the precarious line that may lead to losing a case to Internal Investigations and accusing an innocent officer of corruption. "He never had anything else however. He never spoke of it again, despite many long hours by PC Brown."

"We think he may be on to something though." Hayleigh said, glancing at Max again, then frowning. "It's in regards to the break-in at my hostel. I think I know who was behind it and who the bent cop might be." She looked at Neil. "You know him. His name is DS Arthur Faison."


	23. Faison

**Disclaimer: **Oooh, I found it in the back bin! It's a little crinkled. I'll get back to you when it's ironed out a bit. Until then I still don't own The Bill!

_Chapter Twenty-Three;  
_Faison

"That's a very serious accusation DC Spark."

Hayleigh frowned and crossed her arms. "In all due respects guv, if you knew him, you wouldn't be too surprised by it."

Heaton frowned at Neil. "Isn't he the officer coming down from Manchester in two days?" Neil nodded a curt reply. "Then you best stall him Neil."

Hayleigh smiled. "That's the best news I've heard all day."

Heaton looked back at her. "I'm not saying I'm ready to start digging into his financials DC Spark but this investigation team has endured enough drama so far," Heaton made a point of looking at Max who just returned a very bored expression, "and we really don't need any more." Max just glanced away wordlessly. "So do what you can." Neil nodded at his superior and started back to his office. Heaton just glanced at the others. "Okay, back to work." He left and the others moved back to their respective jobs.

Hayleigh took a seat again, turning her chair towards Max, who was typing another text message into his phone. "Well, that's a start isn't it…"

Max cut her off. "What's the real story between you and Faison?" He asked, not looking up from his phone.

The DC frowned. "I told you."

"No, you told me about him, not about 'why you?'." He stood, repocketing his phone. "You can tell me whatever you like but I strongly suspect you know full well why." Then, not giving her another look, he left the room.

…

Neil glanced up from the phone as Roger knocked on his door. Giving the PC a brief nod he finished up and came to the door after putting the phone down, seeing Roger waiting patiently near Millie's desk. He took the piece of paper Roger held out and instantly recognised what Roger was trying to say. "Craig Bolt?"

PC Valentine nodded. "Lurking around St. Hugh's about the time we found Samuel."

Neil frowned a little. "Hmmm, waiting for us to bring the body in I suspect." The thought disgusted him a little, that Craig seemed to be holding out for a sight of what he'd achieved, despite the fact he was on the run from the police for skipping bail and therefore could be pulled in at any moment. It was a sign of his true arrogance and showed that no matter what anyone said or tried to do with him, in his mind he was above that, above trivial matters such as his own arrest. It was an attitude that made him unpredictable and very, very dangerous. "What inspired you to get St. Hugh's footage?" He also wasn't surprised by Roger's initiative. He hadn't worked with the older PC a lot but when he did he was yet to be disappointed with his work ethic.

"The note at the Roxon safe house guv. It got me thinking – someone knew about Samuel and the situation with the family so maybe they were following them?" He shrugged. "I haven't watched all the footage yet, haven't got to the times when the family arrived at the hospital, because when I saw this." He motioned to the picture. "He's slipped out of the woodwork just to show up in a high CCTV area so he can watch his family come to cry over the nephew he may or may not have murdered?" Roger failed to hide his disgust.

"I think so." Neil frowned at the picture. "But where has he been hiding all this time? We had all his usual spots covered, eyes everywhere, but he goes from 'The Invisible Man' to the star of hospital CCTV in a matter of days." Neil tapped the picture against his other hand and looked up at Roger. "How much CCTV footage have you got?"

"Two cameras. They were the front and side entrances. Hospital wouldn't let us take the others with us but said we could watch them at the hospital."

Neil nodded. "Take two people with you and," he glanced around the CID room and spotted Hayleigh sitting alone. "DC Spark." Hayleigh glanced up and started towards them with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "DC Spark, help Roger go through some CCTV footage down at St. Hugh's. Craig Bolt was there earlier."

Hayleigh frowned. "It's not his style to risk such a public place. He never even went to the hospital when he wasn't on the run; he had a GP on call, made the doctor come to him."

Roger glanced at her with a smile. "Not that anyone at St. Hugh's would have treated him." Hayleigh gave a light laugh but her heart wasn't in it, that was obvious. Neil brushed off his thoughts on how she'd so quickly turned from a DC happy a previous co-worker was being looked into to someone who looked like they'd just been told their dog had been hit by a car. That wasn't important now.

"Well get down there. Any footage you can get of him, anything you can hear from the hospital staff, gossip will suffice. I want to know if he found the Roxons, anyone," he frowned harder. "And someone find PC Brown. I know she's with Eleanor but if they saw Bolt, anything, we need to know." Roger nodded and pulled out his phone to call his friend as Neil looked at Hayleigh. "I spoke to Faison. He stated that he 'knew you'd stop him from coming'. I told him it was a matter of peace in a confusing time for the investigation but he'd have none of it. I have his superior's word he won't be sent down but something about him makes me think he…"

"He'll come down anyway?" Hayleigh muttered. Neil nodded. "Oh, yeah, he will. He's determined to be in on this, has been since the start, it's bizarre."

"I'll make sure to inform the team if he turns up and get everyone to keep an eye out." Neil shrugged. "I do understand dedication to an job but obsession? No, we have Max for unstable and obsessive, we don't need anyone else." Then, with a brief nod, he returned to his office. Hayleigh just let out a held-in sigh and started for the CID doors.


	24. Brecht

**Disclaimer: **I own The Bill… ionaire's Card in the card game 'Billionaire'… but I don't own The Bill.

_Chapter Twenty-Four;  
_Brecht

"Firies report." As ever Nate was full of energy when he started into CID holding a few sheets of paper. Stevie came forward to take them from him as he entered. "Brecht house."

"I guessed." She returned with a grin. She flicked through the first few pages, noting the damage, stating the fire had started on the stovetop. Fire patterns and such were usually very good at trailing a fire's spread. She frowned at something though. "'A stovetop left on and a stray towel or dishcloth seem to be the source of the fire'." She glanced up. "Um, what?"

Nate understood. "Page Four – definite signs of life within the house when it caught fire." He motioned to the papers. "There's a list of items. About half a dozen had serial numbers too and guess what? All were stolen. I checked." He suddenly sounded a little like an eager child and Stevie grinned.

"Thanks for that." She flicked to the page. "Television, microwave, groceries…" she paused. "Tell me that doesn't say cartridges and weapon-cleaning equipment."

Nate shrugged. "That's what I read. Serial numbers scratched off the cartridges but they were full, if that helps."

"It would help more if there was a gun with them." She scratched her bottom lip with her teeth. "Jumping to conclusions, as I do," Nate smiled warmly. "The shooting at the Maycroft this morning, the cartridges, the stolen items, the empty house that's obviously been lived in… can we say we found where Bolt's been hiding?"

"Seems like it might be a safe assumption actually. Especially considering the last item they found." He motioned to the list and Stevie noted it with a smile. "Keys, to a boat."

"Tell me we can match them to Bolt's boat 'The Sahara'?" Stevie said with a smile, remembering Bolt's smug face when they'd first seen him on his little cruiser, the boat stripped clean but given back to Bolt when bail was given. The bail he subsequently bailed on of course.

"I think that could be done. They're in lock-up if you want a closer look at them?"

Stevie nodded. "Let's see what we can find."

…

"Roger?" Grabbing a drink from a St. Hugh's coffee machine, Roger turned at the voice and frowned a little.

"Andrea?" Before him stood Andrea Roxon but it seemed that she'd got even worse than when he'd left her at home. She was wrapped in a shawl, her skin was pale, and she seemed to shake. She looked sick and so bad that even among the sick of St. Hugh's she stood out. "What are you doing here? You should be at home with David."

She shook her head. "Eleanor hasn't come home."

Roger's frown only got deeper. "What?"

"Roger, I think you need to see thi…" Hayleigh appeared behind Roger from the room nearby where they'd been examining footage. She came face to face with Andrea and the quiet dislike that hadn't been evident before suddenly surfaced. "Andrea? How are you?"

"Craig has killed my son and my daughter is missing now. What do you think?"

Hayleigh's head lowered a little. "I'm sorry this happened to you Andrea. Samuel was a good kid. And Eleanor's probably just grieving. She'll come home." She looked at Roger as she said that though, seeming to know something. "I need you to see this… alone."

The addition of that word just seemed to incense an already stricken Andrea. "Alone?" Her voice rose a little. "Is this about Samuel? I need to know things. Everything."

Roger took a deep breath. "It's not about Samuel. Not really." He looked at Hayleigh whose face said 'don't do it' but Roger paid her no heed. Andrea deserved to know. "Craig was here earlier."

"What?" She took a shaking breath. "To torment us?" Roger nodded silently but Andrea shook her head. "No, that's not all. That's never all. He'd be putting notes under our door," Roger frowned lightly at the mention of a note but decided not to bring up that mysterious letter. "Sending bouquets of flowers, not this, no this is something else." Something dawned on her face – realization. "When was he here?" Without a word she dashed past the two officers and into the room, freezing in front of the screen Hayleigh had paused on. Clear as day there sat Craig Bolt in the front of a dark-coloured Mazda, waiting, watching the car park exit. Stalking. Andrea coughed back a sob. "He's got her hasn't he?" She looked back at Roger. "I know it. Craig's got Eleanor."

"We don't know that."

Hayleigh took a seat. "You have to see this." She pulled up another screen. "The camera pans at 30-second intervals so there's quite a gap between sights." She pressed play. There sat Craig Bolt watching and waiting. The camera moved away and when it came back it passed over a young lady jogging up towards the exit. Andrea's hurt sob was enough to tell them she'd recognised the back of her daughter's head. It panned back and there sat Craig Bolt… watching his niece start away. Then it flicked away. "It pans once then records from camera two, which is at the top of the exit." She motioned to the time. "2:41pm. And there's Eleanor – leaving the hospital." The camera panned again and then there it was – a front on view of Craig Bolt driving up the exit, eyes trained on the girl not far from him, following her to the street. The big bad wolf waiting for his chance. It flicked back to the side exit and in front of them out jogged PC Millie Brown. She scanned the surroundings then jogged up the exit too, out of the camera shot. Back to the top of the hill she turned to the left, the way Eleanor had gone, and started down the street after them. By the time the view went back to the top of the exit again both women, and the dark-coloured Mazda, were gone. Hayleigh paused it and looked back at Roger and Andrea. The mother was crying hard now, leaning against a table next to her; sobbing so hard her whole body shook. Roger just lowered his head and grabbed his radio, starting for the door. Hayleigh sighed softly and pushed out the seat next to her. "You should sit down Andrea." Andrea did as she was told as Hayleigh glanced back at the surveillance footage, taking a breath, tears prickling her eyes. All she wanted right now was for this day, this case, to end… she'd had enough.


	25. Roxon

**Disclaimer: **No disclaimers! Let's bring this home!

_Chapter Twenty-Five;  
_Roxon

Neil stepped out of his office, grave look on his face, and then cleared his throat to grab the attention of the people in the room. "Craig Bolt was sighted leaving St. Hugh's following Eleanor Roxon from the hospital. She, he and, in turn, PC Millie Brown, were last seen headed in the direction of Cutler Lane and the railway underpass. Uniform have sent two PCs to gather CCTV footage. I need two more of you."

Instantly Will stood. "I'm on it guv." It was Will's nature of course and the very idea that a fellow officer, anyone really, was in trouble and he could stop it being so – he was on it. No one was surprised when he jumped to his feet. It was the other man rising slowly, straightening his jacket, that caused eyes to rise.

"I'll take charge of the task." The sergeant had no expression on his face, none whatsoever, and Neil frowned slightly. "I've got nothing go on right now." It was a lie, there was plenty he could be doing, and Neil knew it. He made no effort to hide that he did.

"Are you sure Max?"

Max just nodded as he and Will walked past. "He's not getting one of our own guv." And with no more explanation than that, Max shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and walked from the room, leaving a mute Neil in his wake.

…

"Hey Stevie, check this out." Nate's eager voice floated across the small Brecht apartment as, clad in blue suits and gloves, the pair picked through what was left of the evidence. The firies had taken the most notable stuff but there was a reason they were firies and Stevie was a detective – she noted the stuff that seemed irrelevant too. One thing was the half-burned envelope Nate now held between two fingers. He held it out to Stevie and she pried open gently what was left. Inside was half a note, folded and burned, caked in soot and dust. Kneeling down in front of a badly burned, but somehow still standing, coffee table, she laid the letter out flat and wiped off as much soot as she could without ripping anything. Nate kneeled beside her and squinted his eyes at the note. "Something 'Bolt'." He looked up with a smile. "A good start."

Stevie nodded. "A very good start." Stevie felt sure that the many hours they spent looking for Craig Bolt's hiding place had now paid off. If they could prove it then they could find another reason to arrest Nikolai Brecht, who had still escaped their long arm of the law for now, all the investigation's funds going into finding Bolt. One link to Brecht this strong and surely they'd get more money. She just wished Met money wasn't an issue and therefore the only thing holding them back. She read on. "Something something, I can't read that word, 'Tennyson'." She paused. "There's a Tennyson Road down by the docks, where Bolt's boat is kept." Nate nodded, pulled out his notepad and wrote that down. Stevie kept reading. "More indecipherable stuff, then 'plans', unknown, unknown 'edge of' unknown and then 'done.'" She frowned. "It's like a jigsaw puzzle with 95% of the pieces missing."

Nate tapped the paper. "We've got one though. Letter's from a 'Lenny'. Young I'd say, based on his handwriting – young or at least immature in some way."

Stevie grinned. "You a handwriting expert now?"

"I have many hidden talents." Nate pushed himself back to his feet. "Tennyson Road? Or find this Lenny first?"

"Lenny's a needle in a haystack. Let's go check out Tennyson and Bolt's boat too. If we're lucky Lenny will find us."

"Since when are we lucky?" Nate laughed softly.

"Positive thought Nathanial… positive thought."

…

It took half an hour to gather all the footage from the area around Cutler Lane. Of course, as was all the cases of kidnap scenes, the place looked so serene – like nothing had happened. Max had stood at the junction of Cutler Lane and Bennet Avenue. In front was Cutler Lane leading back to the hospital. To his right a hardware store and the route to Canley's High Street. To the left closed businesses and the railway underpass. A good place for a kidnapping down there. He tried to push that thought from his head though. But it was always easier said than done with Max. His brain didn't always like to play along too well with his common sense.

After shop owners were forced to part with 10 tapes of footage, the small group headed back to the station where Roger and Hayleigh were waiting for them. Roger mentioned Andrea Roxon, but Max didn't really hear, he just went straight to the Incident Room and pushed the first VHS tape, the footage from a florist on Cutler Lane, into the VCR. At 2:47 he found what he was looking for. Millie and Eleanor walking together down the footpath outside the florist. A minute after them came Bolt's dark blue Mazda. Max paused the tape and took it out, writing a note on the whiteboard beside him. As he wrote Neil, Roger and Will joined him. For an hour they worked through all the footage, fast-forwarding and calculating, checking it on maps. They got a decent timeline going quickly. 2:47 the girls outside the florist, 2:48 Eleanor outside the hardware store, 2:51 Eleanor on High Street. They lost her after that from a lack of footage. Millie however seemed to have turned towards the underpass… and with her went Craig Bolt.

Max picked up the last piece of footage as the others in the room went quiet. They'd checked the High Street late into the hour but Millie had not come that way. They checked back later on Cutler Lane… nothing either. There was only one option left.

"2:47 – the Asian Grocer on the other side of the railway underpass." Max pressed play and they watched the exit of the underpass quietly for five minutes. No one emerged. There was nothing. Max sighed and stopped it at 3:04 a few minutes later. Then he pulled it out and put in the next tape. It was from Cutler Lane, the far end near the hospital, from a restaurant. "2:52 – Bolt's dark-coloured Mazda picks up speed as it leaves Cutler Lane." He paused the video as they got a blurry shot of the numberplate. "Guv?" There was a strangled tone to Max's voice as he lead into what they all knew was about to come.

Neil nodded. "Put out an APW and run the plates through the system and traffic camera alerts. As of now Craig Bolt is suspected to be holding a police officer in his custody." He nodded to the footage as he left the room. "Get that cleaned up and identified. Now."

Max didn't need to be told twice…

**THE END**

_Up Next…_

Life On The Other Side: Carter

In Part 4 of _Life On The Other Side,_ the team work hard to track down Millie before Craig Bolt does anything that the team will regret. For Max this means revisiting the last time he allowed Millie to fall into a situation beyond their control. Will he be able to tell Millie he's sorry for her ordeal with Mick and Si? And which member of the team will sacrifice their own safety to get her back?

'Carter' starts June 1st


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